Beckham Captains England Again

David Beckham has been given the chance to captain England in their next friendly in Sunday's international with Trinidad and Tobago. This is the 1st time Beckham has been handed the armband after giving up the captaincy after 2006's World Cup quarterfinal's defeat to Portugal. And the 33-year-old, the fourth skipper of the Fabio Capello era, has set his sights on playing for his country at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. Last March, he reached the century mark to becoming only the 5th Englishman to have represented England for 100 times.

Beckham made his England debut in 1996 against Moldova and was proud to receive an award from Sir Bobby Charlton before Wednesday's home clash with the USA after clocking up 100 caps against France in March. Despite his age, Beckham believes he can still be a valuable asset to the team. No one doubted his passion. "'I have a few more wrinkles now but I still feel I can do what I did 10 years ago," he says.

Download Here Is My Home mp3 Free

You can download the Malaysian Artistes For Unity song entitled Here Is My Home here. This song is an effort by some of the biggest names in the country who have come forward to promote racial unity in the form of a song. The song entitled Here in My Home is a project of Malaysian Artistes for Unity. Among those involved in the project include Afdlin Shauki, Awie, Ning Baizura, Jaclyn Victor, Reshmonu, Datuk Tony Fernandes, Maya Karin, Stephen Chua, Shebby Singh, Sharifah Amani, Amber Chia and Ida Nerina. It is dubbed as a song of hope and racial unity by theStar. To date, the song and video, directed by Yasmin Ahmad and Ho Yuhang have received 38,000 downloads in just eight days.

The North Face® Endurance Challenge in Madison, WI October 18th 2008 Presented by GoreTEX

From April to December 2008, The North Face® Endurance Challenge hosts five off-road running events nationwide. And Madison, WI is in one of them! Take note: October 18 - Madison, WI. Join elites and novices alike as they cover distances of 10K, half marathon, 50K, or 50 miles on stunningly scenic trail courses. The other regionals are April 12 - Bear Mountain, NY, May 10 - Seattle-Bellingham, WA and September 6 - Washington, DC. The championship will be held on December 6 in San Francisco.

The Sport's Biggest Prize50 Mile regional winners receive $1,000 and a trip to The North Face® Endurance Challenge Championship to compete for the country's largest trail-running prize purse - the men's and women's champion will each go home with $10,000. Click on image for registration and also more info about the event. Crazy Legs participants might wanna consider this event in Madison!

International Travel + Shopping Tips (TIPS FOR SHIPPING ANYTHING, ANYWHERE)

Know the Rules: When returning to the U.S., American citizens may bring up to $800 of goods for personal use without paying duties and taxes. There are some tricks for going above that limit. You're allowed to ship up to $200 of goods per day to yourself at a U.S. address without a duty charge. And you can send, duty-free, gifts worth up to $100 per person per day to friends and family in the U.S.

Avoid Unnecessary Fees: Anything sent from the U.S. for your trip--golf clubs, skis, etc.--should be listed as "used personal effects" to qualify for duty-free status. Otherwise, the destination country may view the items as new and try to hit you with an import charge. If you ship the items back home, note them as "American goods returned" on the green customs sticker, so they're not counted as part of your U.S. Customs duty-free allowance.

Bulky or Heavy Goods: Shipping costs are based on the package's bulk or weight, whichever costs more. Too much padding can make for more-expensive shipping.

To Insure or Not to Insure: Most shipping services have a limited liability of $100 per package; in some countries, the liability is about $9 per pound. Buying insurance is a no-brainer for large, valuable, and fragile items.

What's OK and Not OK: Cuban cigars and absinthe are among the many items prohibited from entering the U.S. Bringing plants or seeds home is difficult, when allowed at all. Call 877/227-5511 or go to customs.gov for the specifics. Every country has its own rules on what visitors can take out: Art and handicrafts are generally fine, but cultural artifacts and antiques are often restricted. Check with local officials--not the shopkeepers--before you buy.

Harvard and Wisconsin Tie for Most CEOs in U.S.

The University of Wisconsin is the eighth-largest public university system in the U.S. (2004) and boasts the most CEOs in America's top companies. Based on this Bloomberg article, Wisconsin and Harvard have the most CEOs in America's top companies. The cost of education at Wisconsin is almost 1/3 that of Harvard, but of course, the name Harvard is more well known all across the globe. I've spent 4 years at Wisconsin-Madison and I have also visited the Harvard campus in Cambridge, MA.

A few things that Wisconsin hold an edge over Harvard. Wisconsin's Madison campus is ranked the No. 1 party school by Princeton Review and a top party school by Playboy. College sports events play a big part in that because Wisconsin football program has become one of the top football programs in the nation over the past 10 years while the basketball team has been constantly contending for the Big Ten title every season and the hockey team emerged as national champions in 2006. Fans wearing the gear of mascot Bucky Badger regularly pack Wisconsin's stadiums. A crowded pedestrian mall links the campus with the state capitol. Shops sell original Wisconsin cheese and breweries serve Wisconsin ales like Spotted Cow. On Wisconsin.
Download a copy of the Bloomberg article in pdf here.

eBay $10 Off $50 Discount Coupon

I went to eBay's homepage and saw a box mentioning about a $10 off $50 coupon. I clicked on it and it shows me the coupon good for a $10 discount. You wanna know if you're eligible? Here's what eBay said: "Only invited, registered eBay users who received this offer by email
from us or saw an ad on eBay are eligible. If you want, you can confirm your eligibility by checking My Messages in My eBay and looking for your invitation email. Sorry, no forwarding-this offer is not transferable." The last day to use this coupon in June 4th 2008. You'd have to use PayPal to pay by June 4th the latest. One more thing restriction, purchases on www.express.ebay.com and eBay Live Auctions and purchases made through any customized checkout system are excluded.

Live TV from BlogTV

With no cable cable subscription right now, I stream most of the TV programs over the internet. I watch ESPN highlights on ESPN.com and watch dramas and reality shows on the network's websites (ABC, CBS, etc). Then I came across Blog TV which fits into the category of internet TV. Not only can you watch live TV, there is also live video and live chat of real people who submit their videos. The rich content with various categories to choose from really amazes me. The internet TV concept is popular especially among students in universities and colleges, the younger generation. You can create live video and shows and then let people see you and chat. I find BlogTV to be an interesting place to stop by whenever I want to because there are so many choices available right there. Trust me, it might really appeal to some of you.

Battery Doubler Doesn't Really Double Up

I installed the Battery Doubler, a program to increase my laptop's battery life. However, it didn't perform as I hoped it would. Battery life wasn't doubled as indicated by its name. Misleading. I uninstalled it soon after. I don't see any significant increase in my laptop's batttery life. It varies from computer to computer, but maybe it works best on low power settings so the battery life increase can be higher. So theoretically it's UP TO double of battery.

Install HTC Diamond Keyboard on Your HTC!

Someone hacked the HTC Diamond's keyboard and now you can install the HTC Diamond's keyboard on your HTC phone! I am gonna install it on my HTC Wizard 8125. Download link: http://w15.easy-share.com/1700382557.html The *.cab file is 3.74MB. Copy this *.cab file into your phone and launch it from your HTC phone and it'll install. After installation, you'll find 3 new options for the HTC Diamond QWERTY keyboard namely Touch Diamond Keyboard, Touch Diamond Keypad and Touch Diamond Qwerty. I am enjoying some HTC Diamond features before it's available in the market. Brilliant!

YCA Cages for Your Pet Parrot

I am not the pet guy. In fact, I have never been the pet guy in the group. However, I do like pets and I would have no problems feeding and talking to my pets. I dream of having fish as pet when I was a kid and an iguana pet when I was a teenager. I also marvel at the colorful feathers of the parrot owned by the parrot guy at state fairs. My grandpa had a few birds in his cages behind the house. The few important factors in taking good care of your birds are their food, their play time and their living conditions.

The bird cage must be well-maintained and kept clean at all times. Bird droppings should be cleared often and the cages should be trouble free. Believe or not, some people go all out to provide their beloved pet birds the best bird cage they can find. There are many places where you can find bird cages for purchase online. YCA Cages has different varieties including Aviary, Breeding, Playtop, Dometop, Stylish, Playstands.

Many of the cages come with rollers to make moving easier. My favorite would be the Playtop cages because Playtop bird cages are very practical and good looking! The key feature is the fun play area on top for your birds to roam and exercise. Give your bird freedom and enjoy its company. I will definitely recommend this type of cage for your bird parrot if you have one. I am planning of getting a pet parrot in the near future. I think it's lively and fun and also cool.

1st Class Mail Rate Up to 42 Cents Starting Monday May 12 2008

The cost of mailing a letter goes up a penny to 42 cents Monday, the latest in what are expected to be annual price adjustments by the Postal Service. A new law is making the postal rates to be adjusted every May. However, now they introduced the Forever stamp. It was introduced to help the people save money. The Forever stamp is valid for first-class postage regardless of any increases. With the rate increase approaching, sales of the Forever stamp reached 64 million-a-day in April, postal officials said. Forever stamps sell now for 41 cents but can be used after the rate increase without any additional postage. However, when the rate goes up, so does the price of Forever stamps.

3G iPhone Release Closer Than We All Think?

The current status of the Apple store is showing the 8GB and 16GB iPhone as currently unavailable? Does it mean they are gonna roll out the 3G iPhone soon? Both the UK and US sites are showing the same thing. Something is up. It's either they are really running out of stocks or the 3G iPhone release it actually a lot closer than we all think. I doubt it's the former.

The Inevitable: 3G iPhone

We all know what is coming. Sooner or later, the 3G iPhone is going to be released. I don't see a reason not to market this piece of hype to the rest of the world, especially Asia. It's a no brainer. Tapping into the 3G Asian market for the iPhone. You'll never believe this, but it looks like Cupertino might be getting ready to drop a bomb this summer -- a 3G bomb, in fact! The latest beta release of firmware 2.0 for the iPhone has revealed a clue about the future of the 3G iPhone. In the preference screen, there's an option which allows users of the new model to turn off the 3G radio because it claims that "Using 3G loads data faster, but decreases battery life.", which is exactly true by the way.

Rekindle Online Billiards Love

Back when PS2 had not existed, my video game console would be the the Famicom (also known as NES). That was the 8-bit era. That was where I started. And one of the most popular games was billiards. Many of you would still have vivid impressions of the times you spent playing this game with your neighborhood friends. Now you can relive the excitement you had with the billiards game by playing one of it online. Since so many things have transformed to the internet platform, online billiards is perfect for your free time play. Sometimes they call it online billiard too, but as long as you still remember the passion for it. There's a wide range of online billiards available, including 9 Ball Pool. Once you get to the main page, you can see the nice green background and the layout just looks so simple and elegant. 3 buttons can be seen, Click to PLAY SNOOKER, Click to PLAY POOL and Click to PLAY BILLIARD. As easy as 1,2,3! Now go click and play against other people online for free!

Bring Ziploc's When Travelling for Easy Storage

One thing I learned from travelling around the country is that Ziploc bags can come in handy, very handy in fact, to store away all your belongings. Ziploc bags are easy to use, sealable in a waterproof method. Its transparent packaging makes it easy for you to see what's exactly in each bag. A great tip I find to be short and useful is to use varying sizes of resealable ziploc bags for snacks, toys, first-aid supplies, wipes, kids' clothes—one for each day's outfit—wet swimsuits, travel documents, trash, and just about everything else. Maybe you can grab a few too on your way past the TSA security check at the airport.

Microsoft Stops Its Yahoo! Bid

Microsoft has pulled its plug in the war with Yahoo! in its attempt to takeover Yahoo! to boost its chances against internet advertising giants Google. Yahoo! has been asking Microsoft to raise its bidding price because Jerry Yang thinks Yahoo! was being undervalued by Mircosoft. Maybe Mircosoft will wait for Yahoo!'s share prices to drop before making another move again. It all comes down to money and if things turn bad for Yahoo!, then Microsoft would probably still have a chance. The important thing is, Microsoft really needs to add some firepower to its organisation to compete against the elite, namely the big G, Google.

Cheap Car Rentals

For college students, when they go travelling, they would always need to rent a car. However, they must look for budget rentals or search for the lowest prices which suits their student budgets. I am no different. I look for special discounts and promotional offers which can be applied to my car rental. Therefore, whenever my friends and I need a rental car during our vacation, we often try to look for cheap rental cars so that we can save more money for other funs. Advantage always has low prices for their customers and this may be exactly what you're looking for. Cheap and reliable, that's all we want, so use Advantage to your advantage.

2nd Place in Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball League

After storming into the playoffs final in the Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball League with some late runs and additional strategies, I conceded defeat to the no.1 seed and lost without completing the journey. I was out of town and was not able to update my rosters as I would've liked to. I won't say I would definitely have won if I had the chance to update my rosters, but at least it'd give me a fighting chance when pitted against arguably the best team in the league all season long. Anyway, I am happy to finish 2nd after an up and down season with mediocre roster to start off with after the automated draft right from the start. Another season ends and let's see if the Hornets can win it all!

Quickcam IM to Replace My Quickcam Pro 4000: Downgrade :(

My Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000, which I bought for $50 back in 2004, has gone kaput. The video does not show up and there's only a pitch black screen everytime it starts. The audio, the built-in mic funciton is still good, only the video ain't working no more. Naturally, a replacement candidate would be either the Quickcam Orbit or the Quickcam Pro 9000 or the Ultra Vision. However, the Quickcam IM got the job because I don't quite trust Logitech as much right now. So I am settling for a cheapo Quickcam IM for the moment until I regain the confidednce in Logitech webcam products. The Quickcam IM comes with a headset and it already has built-in microphone, so I am gonna keep the headset in the box for now.

Vote for Your Renuzit TriScents Home Makeover SemiFinalist

Remember the $20,000 Home Makeover grand prize from the Renuzit TriScents “Transform Your Home with Tanya Memme” Promotion I mentioned a while ago? Now the ten semifinalists are in! You can view the semi-finalist gallery and see what the contestants have come out with. 10 videos which you can vote for one of them to win the $20,000 Home Makeover grand prize! Some of the videos are pretty original and creative too. Register to vote!

Here's my favorite of all the ten. Refer to the screenshot on the right. A creative song writing with some music. Pay attention to the lyrics and the rhymes in it. She's doing it or her stepmom. Do your favorite video producer a favor by casting a vote of confidence in him/her to make their home makeover dream come true. Give it to whoever you think deserves it most. Voting ends on June 7th.

I wish I had the time to come out with one smashing video which would enable me to get into the top 10 list and have a shot at a $20,000 home makeover of my own. It takes some creativity and more wittiness to emerge as the winner. Of course, it should have the X-factor; public appeal since we can vote for them! The other video with the babies definitely have some public appeal factor in it too. So do check the semi-finalist gallery out and see them for yourself.

23-cent Pizza for Recessionish Times

Papa John's Pizza was offering a large one-topping pizza for the price of 23 cents as their corrective actions for their dumb LeBron crybaby t-shirt. The 23-cent price of a pizza is an homage to James' jersey number. With this kind of once-in-a-lifetime price, you can expect people to line up outside Papa John's stores to purchase the pizza. I believe I would join the craze too, not for the money, just for the sake of it, so I can tell my grandchildren that I lined up 90 minutes to get my 23-cent pizza. However, only outlets in the state of Ohio has this offer coz LeBron plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Locations were making 300 pizzas an hour to satisfy lines in which customers waited 90 minutes. Each Papa John's location offering the deal in the Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Youngstown areas was prepared to sell more than 900 pies. Outlets were ordered to close early if, as expected, they ran out of pizzas. 86 stores in Ohio sold the 23-cent pizzas.

Movies: Speed Racer In Theatres!

Finally, after briefly mentioning about this movie Speed Racer in 2007, it finally hits the screens this weekend! Adapter from the original Japanese cartoon of Speed Racer, this movie is a must watch for me mainly because of that. Speed Racer's car, the Mach 5, is a true technological marvel as it can use a lot of gadgets from the Mach 5. It'd be a real dreamcome true if I can sit in its replica car and pose for some sweet photos to post on my blog. Put myself in Speed Racer's seat and race against Racer X!

SocialSpark Goes Live 2008

SocialSpark is now live! SocialSpark is a place for advertisers to interact with bloggers. The community heaven for both advertisers and bloggers who are willing to take pay per post type advertising. It creates a new platform which connects advertisers with bloggers and it is trying to combine the blogosphere concept with the social network marketability. Advertisers compensate bloggers to promote their products, services and websites, providing bloggers like me with a way to monetize their blog and traffic. I was among the first few people to be invited to join SocialSpark via the provided Alpha key and now, it is in its beta testing stage.

SocialSpark is different than PayPerPost (from which I've raked in a decent amount of earnings) because it's a social network type of thing where you can add friends and send messages to the other members to add to your circle of network. After registration, create a profile and add in your blog. Enter the details regarding yourself, then your blog's, and then install the code on your blog and submit for SocialSpark's tracking.

The key point is that SocialSpark enables advertisers to select the pool of bloggers to advertise their products to preserve the relevancy instead of throwing up 10 opps to whichever blog which qualifies.Thus, it gives the deserved bloggers their deserved share of the pie because the buyer criteria matches the seller's target audience. Understand?

I created my SocialSpark profile and I am working on it as time passes to enhance and keep it updated to reflect my blog and be relevant to the SocialSpark circle of network. Check out my cool avatar. I am going to work on my profile further this weekend and also catch up with some blogging mania. If you joined too, maybe add me into your friends list. This post is proudly brought to you by SocialSpark.

I Want R-Type Command for PSP - With A Free Ship Replica!

For pre-orders of the R-Type Command for PSP, you (or we) can get a free bonus! It comes with a free R-Type Command ship replica. This long awaited game, R-Type Command is a line fighter shooter game. Being a fan of Gradius, there's no surprise that R-Type Command is my type of game. Now that they threw in the free R-9 replica temptation, I can't make up my mind. My hands are getting itchy to click on the pre-order now button on Amazon. This is an AMAZING pack! Dang!

The New 3G Apple iPhone? With GPS and 3G

Is this the rumored second-gen iPhone? With 3G and GPS support and appearance wise it is slightly thicker than the original iPhone. Rumor has it that the second-gen iPhone is already in its testing stage and as you know in America, we have product testers and beta users, so there'd be some units out there right now. It retains its previous shape and form factor as one would expect. And of course, now it has 3G (there you go, Asia) and GPS. The most noticeable physical difference is back of the phone is no longer metal -- the whole thing is glossy black, from top to bottom. The volume buttons are now chrome. Damn Apple, the battery is still not removable. This is unofficial, so there is still the possibility that the photo is a fake thanks to some Photoshop work. Keeping my fingers crossed for the 3G iPhone release. It's predicted to be in the later half of 2008, so start saving money people! Of course, pay off your debts first.

Dressing Like A Cop, I Mean Police Officer

Don't address cops as cops. My friend once got held over and they claimed themselves to be police officers, not cops. Ever thought of wearing some of the professionally dressed police officers' gears? You can get the BDU Pants with 6 pockets! The 2 front slash pockets provide you with extra space to tuck away your tools. It also has knee patches for those extreme activities in rough conditions. A very good piece of BDU pants for all your work. Added to my birthday gifts wishlist.

The New HTC Touch Diamond - Leaked Images

Hey fellow HTC owners, here's an update on the newest HTC phone (not officially announced yet). From the images, it looks to me that this HTC Touch Diamond is designed for simplicity and elegance from the outside. Equipped with a whopping 4GB of internal memory, I don't think one would need additional storage in the form of the microSD card anymore. The CPU speed is 528MHz and it's a quadband phone. Here are the leaked images and specs of the HTC Touch Diamond (pic):




2.8-inch VGA display
WinMo 6.1 Pro
WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0
eGPS, FM tuner
Quad-band HSDPA 7.2
4GB internal flash, microSD slot
528MHz CPU
3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus
10.7mm (0.47-inches) thick
Supposedly also features an orientation sensor / accelerometer

Click here for all HTC related posts.

BiddingForTravel Has Moved

The forum where I get my priceline bid guides and advice from, BiddingForTravel.com, has moved to a new portal at http://pricelineandexpediabidding.yuku.com/. Previously it was at http://p198.ezboard.com/BiddingForTravelcom/bpricelineandexpediabidding on ezboard. Some new features are as below:

Search: fast and accurate search that works
Free Image Hosting: 30MB of storage to host jpegs, gifts, bmps, pngs
Posts Don't Fall Off the 20th Page: unlimited storage of posts
Advanced Private Messaging: 4GB of storage for you, friends list, ignore list, mark as unread
Profiles With More Customization Options: (e.g. embed videos/music, choose from a list of ready-made designer skins, HTML blocks that you can edit any way you want, etc)

Sony PSP-3000 Rumored Features: GPS, Bluetooth, Touch Screen

There have been rumors circling around for a while now about the Sony PSP-3000 and its new features. It is spreading like wildfire throughout the Internet.Among the features discussed are dual analog sticks, Bluetooth technology, touch screen, and integrated GPS. There is also a high probability that there would be more RAM, rumble or vibration feedback to go together with the dual analog sticks, an HDMI port and PS2 emulation. Let's keep hoping.

2008 is Green Year, Check Out the Ultimate Green Home

A green home? For Electronic House’s Home of the Year? Yes and you bet. For the first time, our grand-prize winner is an energy-efficient, sustainable home that’s made largely from environmentally friendly materials. And yes, it has plenty of electronics. In fact, the home’s control system, lighting and shading systems help to save energy.

The contemporary 4,200-square-foot Casa Futura, as it is known, is powered in part by 26 solar panels, two of which provide heat for the home’s hot water needs. It has water-saving features such as low-flow, dual-flush toilets and smart irrigation systems that water plants only when they need it. The home is constructed largely of recycled materials, with concrete radiant-heated floors and an efficient metal roof. Walls contain extra blown-in insulation, and the windows reflect heat and harmful ultraviolet light. Motorized blinds automatically shade the large windows to keep the rooms cool, and natural ventilation reduces the need for air-conditioning. All the appliances are Energy Star–rated for better efficiency, from the front-loading clothes washer to the low-water dishwasher. Highly efficient and long-lasting LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are used in several rooms as accent lighting, complementing energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and traditional incandescent bulbs on dimmers for energy savings. And a whole-house control system ties together the lights, shades, thermostats and other electronics into one easy-to-use system. The house is so efficient, it has achieved Gold-level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the de facto green building rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Read all about at ElectronicHouse [source]

Contemporary Grandfather Clock

I am thinking of adding an old clock to my apartment instead of the normal dull wall clocks. Last time, I used to shop for wall clocks with flashing LEDs and lightings. Now I am thinking about something more classic and exquisite. A grandfather clock. Not many of my peers, those of my age would make this move I tell you. However, together with its unparalleled class comes with a hefty price tag. The beautiful Howard Miller Urban Floor Grandfather Clock is something I should definitely put into my wishlist. Howard Miller grandfather clocks have the nice designs which suit my style.

It's nice to see an old grandfather clock at my grandparents place and back then I never thought of buying one of it for myself. Back then it needed manual cranking every once in a while to keep it running and I really loved that feature. Contemporary grandfather clocks suits my situation best now. I am taking the 1st step of discovering several models and making a wise selection to add value to my future home. I want it to be appreciated by whoever's living with me and hopefully by my friends and family too.

For those who have the same thoughts as me, there are a lot of options to choose from for your grandfather clock. Since you're spending some amount of money for the clock, be sure to select a high quality grandfather clock which can last you a long time. Something which looks nice on the outside and it good on the inside.

Be sure to buy from a specialized store to ensure reliability and good customer service. I'll definitely regret it if I get bad customer service and a bad shopping experience. Therefore, stores which sell a lot of antique clocks and also contemporary clocks would fit best as they are more experienced.