Tweet Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

Meet my daughter. Of course you know her by now. She is part of Bloggers United, the first bloggers-only bazaar that was created to promote a sense of camaraderie and community among bloggers and their readers. The first bazaar, held on May 2011, was so successful that a second bazaar was quickly organized in partnership with the country’s largest online shopping website, Multiply Philippines.

The thing is she will be in Singapore for business so I volunteered to man her booth.

So yes, me…the momblogger, the mom of blogger Lauren will be there to sell her stuff. (See Lauren’s blog post on this). Our house is cozy and not much closet space so she has to unclog her closet by selling her stuff. Though previously owned by her, trust that each item is of good quality. I will be selling a few of my clothes too (size medium to large). Some of them I just wore once because I hate repeating clothes if they have already been photographed and shown in Facebook.

What: Bloggers United 2
When: Saturday, December 3
Time: 11:00 AM till 3:00 PM ( the bazaar is till 10:00 PM but I have to leave early to attend a scheduled party)
Where: Treston International College, University Parkway District , 32nd street corner C-5 Road , Bonifacio Global City (See map below)
What else?: Entrance fee of 100 pesos
Click teaser photos of some items

Why should you go?

1. You will meet fashion bloggers and of course me! Some of Cebu’s very own fashion bloggers which include Kryz Uy, Eden Villarba, designer Yves Camingue, Gillian Uang and Mildred Zapanta and a few more will be part of this bazaar

2. I will give away volume discounts. A dress is around 200 pesos. (Volume discount of 2 for 300 or 3 for 500)

For tops, it is 100 pesos each, 2 for 180, 3 for 250

3. I will give early bird give-aways (for purchases 500 pesos and above) until supply last. Please come early because I can only man the booth until 3:00 PM. My helper will stay until 7 PM though.

4. This event is the perfect opportunity for both bloggers and their adoring readers to mingle and personally interact with each other. Fun contests and exciting giveaways from sponsors and entertaining performances from bloggers (Walkie Talkies, Reese & Vica) themselves .

5. Part of the proceeds from this event will go to the GMA Kapuso Foundation (http://www.kapusofoundation.com/) for its school building project, a small but significant step to improve the Filipino youth’s access to education.

This is a one-day-only event that you shouldn’t really miss! This is the perfect shopping day this Christmas because the most affordable and most fashionable clothes, accessories and footwear will be up for grabs. See you there. Look for me at iambourgeois.com / beautyoverfifty.net booth

Here is the map to go to Treston International College,Taguig City

View Larger Map

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets. Or Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

How about visiting my Beauty over 50 blog?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Tweet Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

I feel bad when I leave my hubby at home whenever I travel. Not that he doesn’t want to travel with me, it is just work sometimes prevent him from being with me. Well, no excuse this time because my next adventure is just around the corner. It feels like an out-of-town trip considering the one hour travel time.

He worries “what if there is a typhoon?” recalling the time Sofitel Hotel got flooded during Typhoon Pedring. I worry too but I have learned to let go, and let God.

So what were we up to?

I normally review gadgets (which I return after a period of a week or two) at my home. This time Samsung thought of inviting us to check in a hotel to review their latest offering: Samsung Smart TV (UA60D8000) and the latest blu ray player (BDD5500). Considering the size of the TV, I think this is a good idea to have the review done in a hotel. I get to focus on the review and have fun at the same time.

While I am enjoying this ultra-slim Smart TV, my husband is mesmerized by the aquarium walls that surround our room .

Our Aqua supreme room at the Hotel H20 in Ocean Park was simply amazing. Our room had no windows except these aquarium walls. Watch this video:

I let him be as I work a bit on my own. We own some Samsung products (we bought all of them in case you are curious…) like kitchen appliances, PC monitors and an LED TV set and I am quite happy with the quality and performance. I knew I will not be disappointed.

It was a bit intimidating at first getting to understand all the controls at the remote. With a bit of knowledge from our own Samsung TV remote, I managed to get the Smart hub. I recalled Jayvee telling me that I can use my iPhone as Samsung remote pad.

For this flat TV segment, connectivity is key. Apart from being able to connect to the Internet and do your standard browsing, you can also use your Android device or iPhone as a remote controller via Bluetooth. If you don’t own any of these, you can also buy a QWERTY remote controller that connects via Bluetooth. That means you can have a QWERTY / smartphone side by side your IrDA remote control.

I will soon find out how to do this.

I have not tested everything yet. I am just getting a feel and if it is easy to set up. My husband wants to nap first before doing anything else. Let me give you just a preview .

I did some tests using Skype calls, “Social TV” updating my Twitter, and Facebook, web browsing and getting awed with the preview of videos at the Blu Ray DVD.

I called my sister to do a quick skype chat and show off our aquarium themed walls.

Ooops…Time to go (my husband wants to cuddle in bed) …

Butch ended having a nap while I wrote this entry.

A few minutes later, we strolled around the hotel to look for our dinner.

An array of DVD titles were provided but we picked up Resident Evil to try out Samsung’s featherweight 3D glasses converts pictures to 3D in real-time!. For some reason, the 3D image didn’t work so we ended up removing the 3D capability.

I found out there was a switch to turn on right there on the top of the glasses.

Shrek (4th episode) was just so sweet and romantic. I was quite amused at some of the lines uttered by Shrek. It quite reminded me of Butch.

I was about to test more of the Smart hub but the breaking news of Gadhafi’s death was all over the news. Images of a dead or injured Gaddafi seemed larger than life in this 60 inch TV.

There is more to explore in Samsung’s Smart TV like the online interactive media as well as on-demand streaming media. For the kind of online work that I do, a Smart TV makes multi-tasking so much faster. Definitely the TV of the future with the rise of emerging media.

Do you imagine a Smart TV inside your living room?

Read more of my review of the Smart TV in my tech blog , The Samsung Smart TV is beauty and brains indeed.——————————-
You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets. Or Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

How about visiting my Beauty over 50 blog?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Tweet Follow me in twitter @momblogger.“When you look outward you dream, and when you look inward you awaken” Brian Quebengco, founder of and “chief inoventor” at Inovent Inc.

“Mom, let me look at the third eye at the back of your head”, one of my daughters used to dig into my hair whenever I berated her. See, I use to joke around with them that a third eye rests at the back of my head where it is possible for me to see everything they do behind my back. Of course, moms are just good at multitasking which is no secret at all. I even have this strange habit of lounging on the couch with my macbook, turning on the TV and working. Productivity hits me the highest when I am in this TV/laptop mode.

You can just imagine the excitement I felt as I watched the unveiling of the beta prototype of the Ilumina LCD iTV today, on Independence Day. This is something I want to own. More than the discovery of an innovative TV, I felt proud to be a Filipino as I talked to Brian Quebengco, the founder of and “chief inoventor” at Inovent Inc., creators of the Ilumina LCD Interactive Television (iTV).

This interactive TV is exciting because it is invented (innovated) by Filipinos and is the world’s first fully integrated TV. Think of the possibility of the modern Filipino family whose loved one is an OFW who will be able to talk to her/his family right there in the living room. Talk about connecting families. That’s pretty much exciting, don’t you think? I won’t bore you with the technical details but if you care, I wrote about it in my Tech Gadgets blog over here.

What actually touched me is Brian Quebengco’s inspiring journey as he survived through spates of depression and found the life he loves. He shared his story on TV and magazine interviews. I’ve often talked of suicide and mental illness myths in the Philippines. Depression is not mere sadness, dear folks. Prayers alone cannot totally eliminate depression because it’s a chemical imbalance in the brain. The sad thing is mental illness is still considered taboo in our country but Brian wants to help others through his story.

In this interview, Brian says

Surprisingly, I was a depressed kid. I was alone and my empathy was “skies the roof”. I was very sensitive. My parents are loving parents. They were like any other parent. But when they scold me, like any normal parent, I get so emotional about it. So I grew up being very depressed out of that, not their fault, to the point that I attempted suicide when I was 18. I attempted suicide again when I was 24, which made me end up in the basement of Makati Med. I spent my whole years trying to fight my depression, and I realized one day that I should stop fixing my weaknesses but rather just focus on my strengths, which has always been there. That changed my life. At 29, that was the tipping point in my life. I started focusing on my strengths. I voraciously read, even to this day. I am 33 now. I have read around 400 books, just to master and know myself and know a lot more about…

He transformed his depression into something creative and innovative, like this Ilumina LCD iTV. Brian found his passion. He was not afraid to leave his comfort zone. His voluntary work as a strengths coach uses strengths psychology. As a strengths coach, he focuses on what’s best in people. He focuses on their talents, or recurring patterns of thought, feeling and behavior that they can apply productively. There is a part of him that does it on the corporate side, but he also does it on a volunteering side to just share with regular people.

Brian believes everyone is meant to do something special in this world. “I mean there’s greatness in being the best janitor, there’s greatness in being the best waitress or accountant. For me, I just found that this is my calling. This is where I am best at. I just spend a lot of time understanding myself. I always say this to people, “You first have to look inward before you move forward.” And for any entrepreneur, although we have to constantly move forward, we should never stop looking inward. ”

My purpose in life are two things–to bring out the best in people and to champion Philippine ideas. That would be my two personal purpose.

You are not just looking at the world’s first fully integrated TV invented by a team of Filipino young Filipino engineers, industrial designers and programming experts. I see proud Filipinos who want to champion Philippine ideas and promote it on the world stage. Brian’s passion is to share the best of the Philippines to everybody.

Brian focused on his strength to bring out the best in him and in the process learned to be happy with his life. You now see the product of that focus— the Ilumina LCD iTV.

The prospect of the Ilumima LCD iTV is indeed very exciting, especially since I’m very fond of multitasking. My typical evenings will surely change as I seat in front of the TV, catching up with local news, world news, or celebrity gossip while I write blog entries and update my social networking sites on the Macbook on my lap.

Now, that won’t stop my “third eye” from checking the activities in my household.

Today’s Unveiling of the Ilumina LCD iTV

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets. Or Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

How about visiting my Beauty over 50 blog?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Tweet Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

I blame Butch Dalisay for the La-Z-Boy which I gave as a Christmas gift to my husband. I showed Butch’ La-Z-Boy entry to my Butch and ever since, my hubby kept asking “so will you buy me a La-Z-Boy?”

Nah, I would starting calculating figures and shake my head. I had thought of buying him the latest macbook because his laptop though still alive, dates back to 2002 and is agonizingly slow.

So, why did I find myself in Blim’s Furniture store on December 22 in front of leatherbound Rocker Recliner chairs? It was like each chair was teasing me:

Hi, would you like to sit on me?

I shot back silently. Sure, let me try each one of you and convince myself that you are worth buying for.

I gazed at every model of the La-z-Boy Rocker Recliner chairs. You would think each chair is created the same. The cheapest is around 28,000 pesos but it is smaller in width and made of fabric. Some are leather match meaning the chair itself is made of leather but the sides abd back are leatherette. Other chairs are made of pure leather while others combine a massage feature. Definitely the six-figure range is out of my league. I chose the Larson because of its classic looks, comforting pillow back, flared arms and alluring curves. As I sat down on the Larson, I could now imagine my husband languishing on it, stress from work washed away as he rocks himself to comfort. I mean, this is the most sensible gift to my husband , the breadwinner for years. He had worked himself off for years and needs to relax at his sanctuary, his corner of our room.

My mind started to wander. Is the macbook a better gift for my husband than a la-z-boy?

Yes, hubby would be delighted with the latest gadget but after awhile, I am sure the macbook will sit in the closet among the cobwebs just like his IBM laptop. Like a new toy, the novelty will wear off. The Larson chair, though not cheap is definitely more affordable than a macbook. The chair comes with a 10 year warranty and since it was designed in 1929, it won’t become obsolete like macbooks.

I surprised myself as I turned to the salesman Can you deliver the la-z-boy by December 24? The salesman affirmed and promised a December 24 delivery. I added that if it didn’t arrive on December 24 that I’d cancel the order. I was making too many excuses to convince myself that it may not be an ideal gift. I had planned that the Rocker Recliner would be in our room ( tied up in red bow with my Christmas card) when hubby was out for the grocery but as always, not everything goes as planned.

The la-z-boy arrived at 5:30 PM just as Butch went downstairs.

Imagine his surprise, when a huge box poked at his face by the front door. He was tongue-tied for awhile until the Reclina-Rocker got assembled. What a perfect combination to our Filipino-themed bedroom-sanctuary!

Butch laid down on the comforting chair, closed his eyes . I thought I saw a wicked smile escape on his lips. A few minutes later, he stood up, muttered and kissed me for the gift. Words were not enough to describe his joy. I understood.

Butch will be enveloped by the chair’s unconditional love. This chair will understand his stress. It will be attentive to every twinge of pain and weariness in his 49-year-old body. He could recline there and read books or nebulize all day and the chair wouldn’t say one word back, except maybe soothing words like “It’s okay. Get some rest. Husssshhh.”

This la-z-boy is going to be the perfect antidote to all the hard work my husband goes through every working day and his faithful companion for the rest of his working life.

I just wished the chair’s 120kg weight limit would include mine so I could cuddle with him at times.

My husband has more to say in The Chair That Changed My Life.
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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets. Or Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

How about visiting my Beauty over 50 blog?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Tweet Follow me in twitter @momblogger.Post moved to my new blog, Tech Gadgets.——————————-
You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets. Or Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

How about visiting my Beauty over 50 blog?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Tweet Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

It’s been a year and 2 months since I subscribed to three (3) Philippine Internet Service Provider (ISP) namely, Globelines Broadband Budget Bundles, Smart Bro and PLDT MyDSL. At the time of installation, I believed it was not yet time to make a review. Give it a year, I said to myself. What do you know? I survived to tell you about these 3 ISP’s. As a netrepreneur, my business relies on fast and reliable internet connection. I am sure other parents out there will be interested to know my experiences with these ISPs.

Let me add a fourth ISP, the Smart 3g which I use specifically for my macbook.

Take note, I am a paying subscriber located in Pasig City near the Quezon City area. I added speed test results (using speedtest.net) to show how most of our ISPs never deliver the promised speeds. I start being a “reklamador’ and then call support if speed falls below 50% after all it is my right to get the services I paid for.

Anyway, here goes:

1. Smart Bro- 999 pesos for a 256 kpbs connection- installed March 2, 2007

This internet connection is located at Lauren’s computer. Installation was pretty fast with only 1 day waiting period. During the first four months, there were barely any connection problems. Slow speed started to occur sometime June 2007. Calling the Smart Support (6727277) is agonizing. It’s best you have a speaker phone when you dial their number.It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour before you can get to talk to someone. They make you do all that PING, bandwidth testing on your PC before they call in the tech support to go to your place. I keep telling them that they have congested their cell sites. They replace the antenna thinking it’s defective. I complain it is a congestion problem. After a replacement of the antenna, the slow connection continued on especially starting at 6:00 PM .

SMART BRO’s dismal performance turned me into a “nasty” person and sometime August, I threatened to report them to the National Telecommunications Commission for non-existence of an internet connection. This was after waiting again on the phone for an hour. Fortunately, the nice technicians came. They are amazed that I am given support a day after my phone call. I kept thinking the SMART BRO tech people must have googled my name and found out I was a blogger. Maybe? They changed my base station to a less congested base. I was optimistic this would work but no….slow connection still happened. I was more emphatic this time “If you can’t give me a stable internet connection, then just release me from the locked-in period”. In fairness to the tech guys, they did a great job the third time around. Since August 2007, SMART Bro connection has been very stable.

Speed Test

Upload: 305 kbps
Download: 235 kbps
Promised speed: 256kbps reaches 100% (They might have also upgraded to 512 kbps)

Rating- 5/10 only because calling SMART BRO Support is torture and they tend to congest their base station. Though Support takes time to answer your calls, they give feedback in your cellphone regarding the progress of your report.

2. Globelines Broadband Budget Bundles - 2 MBPS with landline. (now at 1,995 pesos only)

The Globe Broadband connection is attached to Marielle’s desktop. The thing I like most about Globe Broadband is that their modem comes with a wi-fi router. At its peak usage, 3 laptops and a desktop connect to this wi-fi connection. During the first few months, calling Globelines Support at 9198888 took at least 45 minutes. For the past 7 months now, I didn’t have to wait too long for tech support to pick up my queue. I have encountered 4 connection problems with them so far. The first one lasted for one day with no internet connection. My succeeding problems with them was dropped wi-fi connection. I experience dropped wi-fi connection problems every 30 minutes but I can live with it since it goes back up in a 5 seconds or less.

Speed test (using wi-fi in two separate tests)

Upload: 1788 kbps
Download: 242 kbps

(edit- June 4, 2008)
Upload: 2144 kbps
Download: 494 kbps
Promised speed: 2 MBPs at almost 90% speed and surpassing the promised speed of over 100%

Rating 7/10 because their connection has been quite reliable with minimal downtime. It could be better if wi-fi connection is more stable with less frequent dropped wi-fi connection.

3. PLDT MyDSL 1MBps and landline bundle at 999 pesos a month

At the time of installation, my plan was 768 kbps speed. Currently, the plan is a 1000 MBps.

Of all the 3 ISP’s, PLDT was the last to install. From April 2007 to March 2008, PLDT has dropped connections every 15 minutes or so. I called their Tech Support (171) and it took them a week to get a technician to our house. It was the landline tech personnel who made sure that there were no problems in the landline connection. After they assured me that all the lines were working well, I thought my DSL connection would be smooth. I was wrong. The dropped connections continue till March 2008. Upon calling PLDT support, they keep saying that they are working on it. I gave up calling on them. Maybe because I have another reliable ISP to run to when their connection is not working.

On April 2008, I wanted to terminate their services but they said I can’t because of the 2 year lock in period. I got exasperated. I said I wasn’t willing to pay services since I don’t have a stable internet connection. I threatened to report them to NTC. What do you know? A technician came three days after.

The problem? A defective modem. Oh dear, to think I suffered a year of dropped connection because the first few technicians didn’t think to check on the modem.

So far, I am receiving decent connection from PLDT Mydsl. Decent=not frequent dropped connection.

Speed Test

Upload: 436 kbps
Download:300 kbps
Promised speed:768 kbps reaches only 56% (speed that time was less than 1 MBps)

Upload: 532 kbps
Download:238 kbps
Promised speed:1000 kbps reaches only 50%

(edit- June 4, 2008)
Upload: 1066 kbps
Download:293kbps
Promised speed: 1066 kbps reaches over 100%

Rating 4/10 because of the lousy PLDT myDSL connection I suffered for a year. Support is not “supportive”. They keep saying they are working on the problem without giving feedback.

4. Smart 3G connecting to my Nokia e51 at 10 pesos per 30 minutes of use.

I only use Smart 3g with my macbook whenever I am out of the house. I am quite happy with smart 3g. It often delivers. Sometimes it gives me a message that I am out of credits but all I do is restart the phone modem. Speed depends on location. It can go as high as 1200 kbps or as slow as 100 kbps.

Upload: 723 kbps
Download: 107 kbps
Promised speed: No data

Upload: 434 kbps
Download: 288 kbps
Promised speed: No data

Rating 7/10 because it often gives me the internet connection. However, not all places in the Philippines are covered with the fast 3g speeds. One can get a gprs speed which is sufficient to open emails only.

My suggestions to the Philippine Internet Service Providers:

1. Don’t assume that we don’t know anything about computers. Don’t say we have a virus when you don’t even know if I am using a mac or a PC. Just because I am a woman doesn’t mean I am clueless about computers. Don’t assume we are ignorant.

2. If you are going to have long queues in your Tech Support lines, consider using the SMS system that Destiny Cable (my old provider) uses. When there is a tech issue, I would just send a text message with my landline to their support. When they are free, they return my call. Works like a charm.

3. Stop using the byline line faster than dial-up when you promote your broadband ads . You can’t fool someone like me who has been using cable internet for 9 years now. Yes, you can fool the dialup users but how long can you fool them?

4. Stop congesting or overcrowding your servers. There is huge potential and an untapped market for internet users . You can still earn profitably as demand rises.

To all those who have asked me which is the better internet service provider among my 4 ISPs, I can say it is Globelines Broadband because of the more or less stable internet connectivity and prompt customer support. But remember, not all ISP’s reliability are the same in any locality. I heard Globe Broaband is really bad in Cavite and Makati City.

My ISP recommendation is based on my location which is Pasig City.

Rating my 4 ISPs
In conclusion, here is my score card of my 4 ISPs based on stable internet connection and customer service reliablity:

1. Globelines Broadband could be better
2. Smart 3g (ties with Globe Broadband)
3. Smart Bro
4. PLDT MyDSL (Worst)

How would you rate your internet service provider?

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets. Or Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

How about visiting my Beauty over 50 blog?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Tweet Follow me in twitter @momblogger.Christmas shopping is never complete without a visit to Divisoria to buy wholesale prices on Christmas wrappers, ribbons, and christmas decors. The sights and sounds are quite an experience. I also love the bargains on gift items especially bought on wholessale prices. This time around, my husband wasn’t too comfortable with me shopping alone after that earring robbery in Divisoria. I still went anyway. I left Lauren at 168 Mall to choose some trendy tops because bringing her along with me will just add to the maddening crowd.

Draping a messenger bag on my body, cellphone in my pants’ pocket, and a camera positioned on my cheek, I traversed the streets of Divisoria.

The camera looked silly beside my face and there was the threat of it getting grabbed by lurking robbers.

Wading my way from Sta. Elena St. to Tabora St. seemed like Hell Road. The piercing heat and the stench of rotten food along the way caused my head to throb. But I finally got to ribbons supplier. The array of pretty, colorful ribbons kept me busy for the next hour or so. I love bargains. All that effort was worth it.

Divisoria is a haven for wholesale shopping but it isn’t worth it if one is buying a few pieces of an item.

I am so behind in my Christmas shopping. Are you done?

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets. Or Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

How about visiting my Beauty over 50 blog?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Tweet Follow me in twitter @momblogger.The great thing about blogger meet-ups is the fact that I am usually the oldest in the group.

Mingling with young bloggers means that I get to babble endlessly about techie topics which I can never really discuss with my husband or non-blogger friends. Oh I talk with my daughters but I seem to know more about computer gadgets and other tech topics than they do. Last night, Shai Coggins, co-founder of B5 Media took time off from her vacation to the Philippines for a meet and greet in Kape Isla at Serendra. Shai was one of the first bloggers that I often visited when I launched this blog. In fact, I lovingly stole her Tell Me About You idea which paved the way for me to explore other blog topics other than grief education. Meeting Shai and other blogger friends in the cozy cafe covered a lot of activities like ranting about Google’s Page Rank Penalty, the Trillanes Revolt , the curfew, Monetizing Blogs, raving over the B5 media Schwags, Shai’s personalized prints and Sasha’s fashion loot. But aside from the company of Shai Coggins and the bloggers, the other limelight of the party was this cute little thing…

called the Asus Eee Pc owned by one of the bloggers. I thought I could buy this cute gadget in Singapore but it wasn’t available then. Yesterday, we dabbled with the new affordable ultraportable notebook that’s on many consumers’ Christmas wish lists this year. Just weighing under 2 pounds, the Xandros Linux-powered “ultra-mobile PC” is almost half the size of my macbook. At a starting price of only 16,999 pesos or US $395.00, it cost so much less than those high-end mobile phones. Quite affordable, right? The Eee PC 701 4G in ASUS’ words is “Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play” is really true. We had fun playing with the webcam as you can see below.

The small seven-inch, 800 x 480-pixel display is quite pretty easy on the eyes and doesn’t seem too small. Well, despite the fact that the width is just as wide as our 100 peso bill, it showed a clear resolution. The guy bloggers though had large hands so it took getting used to the keyboard of this mini-laptop. Sometimes I regret buying the macbook because this nifty Asus Eee PC can fit snugly in my handbag. I bet this ultraportable laptop will appeal to a lot of grandparents and young kids or even those who could never afford to buy a laptop. Keep in mind that this is not a full-blown laptop. If you want an inexpensive, light-weight system that can handle all the home, work, and Internet basics, the Eee PC 4G may be all you need. (read more on Asus Eee Pc?)

I am digressing so much but that’s what most of us did last night aside from indulging in Chocolate Fondue, sipping coffee, binging on cocktails and chatting with Annalyn, Rico, Jayvee, Juned, Ely, Eugene, Sonny, Marc, Sharm, Jonas, Sasha, Toni, Azrael, Mike Abundo, Karla, Carlos Castellon and Renzie Baluyut.

I realized it was almost midnight before I called it a night. Good thing Butch didn’t SMS me to go home as he often does whenever I am out without him. He tolerated my late-ness since I cancelled a lot of my appointments the past night just so I could join this Blogger’s Meet-up. The meet-up served as an avenue to share ideas, insights, entertaining tidbits with my fellow bloggers, and finally meeting b5media’s Shai Coggins.

I look forward to more meet-ups this holiday season. Anyone?

View photos I took of …

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets. Or Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

How about visiting my Beauty over 50 blog?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

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Yesterday I talked about my gadget shopping spree where I dragged my husband who apparently got bored and tired after walking around for four hours. All that geek-talk made him dizzy. When it was his turn to get his own shopping fix, he brought me to Ikea (Singapore). But my shopping spirt appears to have gone on a nosedive. I wasn’t interested. For the past year, I postponed gadget shopping in lieu of home improvements for our new home. I thought it was a waste of money to buy stuff in Ikea since a huge chunk of our savings went into furnishing our new home. We have all we need, anyway. How could I stop him from oogling over the low-priced goodies? Butch loves home furnishings, buying for the kitchen and grocery shopping. I am into tech stuff and making house repairs. Funny, how we have diverse interests!

I took photos of Butch as he rolled his shopping cart at the furniture section. He kept murmuring How cheap as he made his way through the array of sofas, tables and chairs. I had to gently remind him that we couldn’t possibly bring tables and chairs with us to the plane. Ooh, that didn’t stop him from carting away kitchen utensils and other small home items that can fit inside a box.

I just let him be.

You would think he’d get contented with his Ikea shopping. Last Sunday, he brought me to Dapitan, the ultimate place to buy unique décor, kitchen and home accents at really low affordable prices. Guess what he bought?

More Christmas-themed plates, and that’s just part of the loot we hauled off from Dapitan.

I just let him be.

Through the years, I’ve accepted the fact that my husband will always be a sort-of-house-husband-homemaker who complements me. I am grateful that he doesn’t go out as much now with his male buddies. Instead, he spends more time fussing over our household. He nurtures his artistic side as he cooks or adds decor to our home. I am glad that he isn’t appalled at my gadgets shopping because he knows how much I love dabbling with web 2.0 applications. We make allowances for our peculiarities because that’s who we really are. And that’s what love is all about. Kind and patient.

I love my husband, idiosyncrasies and all.——————————-
You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets. Or Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

How about visiting my Beauty over 50 blog?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Tweet Follow me in twitter @momblogger.Normally, I just let my dollar earnings sit in the bank because I am lazy to visit the bank and have them converted to pesos. Banks also have silly rules on dollar withdrawals. Anyway, the good side on all this is I am able to save for a rainy day. However, the strong peso got me thinking. I started to convert my dollars on “what could have been” at the old exchange rate and the current rates. I refuse to think of “what could have beens” because I should be grateful that I am still liquid. After reading Abe Olandres’ Weakening Dollar hurts Probloggers, I started to think that maybe I need to spend a little more.

That’s a net loss of Php13.13 for every dollar that I have in the bank. That loss closely amounts to a brand new car or a down payment for a house and lot.

Ugh, I did lose a lot on the conversion.

So what did I do? Oh yeah, I went on a mad shopping spree for Christmas presents.

I followed Ely’s advice on What To Do With Your Dollars When The Foreign Exchange Rate Is Hurting You.

Ely says DO buy dollar-based items – those you couldn’t get before because you thought they were too expensive.

Yes, I went gadget shopping which I would never do in the Philippines.

(I hope I don’t appear to be bragging here but I just want to illustrate the bright side of spending in devalued dollars.)

I bought a Black Macbook for myself (giving my white mac to Lauren), an Acer Aspire 4710Z for my mother-in-law so she can blog, an HP 520 for Murielle and a new Nokia E51 for myself. Originally, I wanted an Asus EEE PC for Marielle which was priced at $300 to $400 but it was not yet available in Singapore. Take note, the HP 520 and the Acer 4710Z are the most affordable laptops priced at only 30,000 thousand pesos each. Think about it, if I bought all of these gadgets in the Philippines, I would have missed a vacation with my husband. The savings alone in buying the macbook is 18,000 pesos. The plane fare, travel taxes for both of us amounted to 25,000 pesos ($581.00).

My favorite purchase of all is the Nokia E51, a business smartphone. Why? It’s simple, slim, sleek, and ideal for a user like me wishing to leverage broadband connections to access mobile Internet telephony from homes and hotspots. One of the best feature of all is the SMS Spam Manager which came pre-installed. I had been besieged by spam SMS in the past and I had no way to control it. Fine, Globe said I can report the spammer at the National Telecommunications and Communications (NTC) but nothing came out of my complaint. Am I so glad that I finally have an anti-spam application!

Look, I placed this person’s cellphone number in the backlist rule.

This person has been spamming me with senseless messages containing nothing else but “gma gmd gm…” as if he suffered a muscle tic on his/her fingers. Ugh after my cellphone was flashed at Salamat Doc , a particular stalker caller texts me more than 25 times in a day and or calls 4 times a day. These text messages are either blank or contain garbage words. Mind you, that show was last December 24, 2006. If we can control some spam messages in our email programs why not in cellphones? There are more applications that works out for me such as checking emails, twittering or using the VoIP phone application. (See more photos here). And guess how much? With the GST refund, I got this uber-cool phone for 14,000 pesos or US $325. I bet this would cost 20,000 pesos or more when the Nokia E51 arrives in the Philippines. When I went to SMART Telecom to buy a similar WLAN enabled phone, the cheapest they could offer was an old model worth 25,000 pesos.

Did I go overboard with the shopping? I believe it was a wise move for some of my sleeping, devalued dollars to purchase affordable gadgets that we need not merely “want or like gadgets”. The Nokia E51 will serve as a modem when I need to go online ( I haven’t figured that out yet). Marielle has no laptop and with her exceptional grades, she deserves to own one now. Lauren likes the mac features that enable her to do guitar recordings and podcast. My mother-in-law will definitely find blogging or chatting via webcam very entertaining. The savings alone are worth it.

The best thing of all was I had a great weekend with my dear hubby, dragging him to the Funan Digital Mall, learning a thing or two about computers and indulging in a gastronomic feast after a tiring day of shopping. Now, he yearns to own a macbook to replace his 5 year old durable Thinkpad. Uh-oh.——————————-
You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets. Or Follow me in twitter @momblogger.

How about visiting my Beauty over 50 blog?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado