I Heart Paypal

Ever since I learned about Paypal, I thought right away how cool it must be to use a service like that - just have an e-mail account to use for online purchases and viola! Checkout products without having to expose or reveal your credit crd numbers. It sounds a lot safer than having to use credit cards directly, even for secured Web sites. When I first registered, I can only use the service to send money but not to receive funds. I bought a lot of tennis DVDs that way. I only had to register my e-mail first and then my CITI credit cards. Eventually, accepting funds was allowed for my account and that’s when the real fun began.

The real great use of Paypal for me is its use for international transactions. It’s so easy and convinient to send and receive money from anywhere in the world. Withdrawing funds to your local bank account make take time, though (about 5 days), but the charges are quite reasonable, compared with other payment and money sending options. I’m only hoping that our local online industry will soon pick up and fully utilize this amazing service.

Waiting + A Contest

I’m beyond excited to get this book I’ve ordered online - The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. Now, these are the times when I can say I *so* love online shopping. This book isn’t available in local bookstores so I had to order from a seller abroad. The great thing is that the shipping cost (not expedited but with insurance) is very cheap, $3.99, compared with most other online stores. I’m kind of hoping I’ll get it in 7 days, which should be just about now, but I’m giving it another 7 days before I seriously get worried.  

For people who shop online, do you have any stories to share regarding your experiences? There’s a certain contest you might want to join. Just refer to this blog when you register.

Bummer

Can’t sleep.

I miss my morning badminton buddies. I feel young there; I’m literally the youngest. I recently found these group of badminton enthusiasts who meet up every Tuesday and Thursday mornings, mommies and daddies and grandparents. A lot of them are intermediate to advanced players, to my delight. Plus, I get to learn some business stuff from some of them like buying real estate or looking for term life insurance quotes. Not a bad aside, huh?!

See that’s why I love badminton. I always find it amazing how many older people enjoy the game. They are even more regular players than I am. I have my Saturdays to play with the younger crowd, at times with 12-year-olds or below.

I just feel bad that I’m still awake and can’t play later today. Geez.

Photo Blogging

For so long, I wanted to learn about photography. Looking at a particularly well-taken photograph - I especially love the dramatic ones with dark hues- is almost like reading poetry for me. Admittedly, I kind of lost a little of the enthusiasm when I realized everybody now seems to go gaga over digital cameras, and later digital SLR cameras, almost as much as people go crazy over cellular phones. That’s a lame excuse, I know. Truth is, at the back of my mind, I know I’d still want to pursue photography. I’m more interested about stories within photographs so I’m thinking along the lines of photojournalism.

Probably simpler and more feasible, photography blogging may be the eventual path I’ll follow. That is, if ever I’ll find the time and the luxury of spending money on a rather expensive hobby. A photographer blog like PhotographyBlogger.com can be helpful in scavenging for the latest information about photography, like the latest technologies and equipment, techniques, and possibly samples of great-looking photos. I know photo blogging isn’t exactly a novelty - it’s all over the Internet; everybody has one, at least every other potential and aspiring photographer out there. But I guess if you have better motivation that just joining the bandwagon, photography blogging can become a fulfilling endeavor.

I.Want.More.Space

My place is getting too messy again and I’m getting increasingly irritated about it. I hate the clutter and my lack of time to place things in order. I wish I have magic to set every thing in place and in sparkling cleanliness with just a flick of the fingers. I’m also wishing for more space, especially after I saw the size of the unit directly across ours (I share my studio-type apartment with my sister). There’s no room for Modern Furniture here. The bed, a sofa bed, and the other appliances already take too much space that I can barely walk around freely.

I know I shouldn’t be complaining too much because, all things considered, it’s just the right place for us. But I look at the pictures of condominium units furnished with Contemporary Furniture and I can’t help but salivate over the idea of a spacious housing space, with a nice room stuffed with Designer Furniture, nah, ordinary Bedroom Furniture. I honestly don’t know a thing about interior designing so if I have a space like those you see on magazines and TV, I’ll probably ask someone else to pick the right stuff (to furnish the place with) and arrange them. I do have an idea of what would make a place right for me, and it’s not really something posh or anything specific like opting just for Italian Furniture. I just want more space. Better stop dreaming and start clearing up the mess around here.

For the Babes

An officemate asked me today about shopping online and in the process I learned about something important - not particularly to me but to parents of little babies. Apparently, there’s a baby bottle ban going on in some parts of America, Canada,and other countries. This is because of the ongoing debate about the risk of bisphenol A (BPA) - a chemical used in the manufacturing of baby bottles and baby formula containers. According to reports, “animal studies have linked BPA with breast, prostate and reproductive system abnormalities and some cancers, but experts disagree on whether it poses health risks for humans.” [AP].

I’m sure a lot of parents would want to be on the safe side and buy BPA-free baby bottles. I heard that those are quite expensive, though. If you can afford it, it could be a good gift these coming holidays for your mommy friends, as my officemate was planning. I’m actually thinking along the lines of musical toys or mobiles because I’ve got a list of friends who recently gave birth.

Is This Thing On?

So this blog got lost in cyberspace (again!) for a couple of days and I was ready to lash out to my hosting provider (yet again). It turned out they changed the nameservers and I had to do some manual settings manipulation on my domain registrar’s site. I had to grapple with terms such as DNS settings, domain parking, IP masking, etc., and I don’t claim to understand them any better but I guess I must have done something right to make this site visible again. If it’s going to be this much pain in the you-know-where to keep this thing going, I might as well start preparing myself to shell out some good money to pay for better hosting. If only there’s sort of a “recipe” book on managing a hosted space - a Web site administration for dummies, perhaps (maybe there’s already something like that out there). Or maybe I’ll be better off reading Thanksgiving recipes. That sounds like a more delectable prospect.

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