A lot of my readers ask me what tools and/or materials I recommend for creating the DIY projects I have listed here on my blog.  So I added links to my recommended products on each project page.

I always look for deals or the lowest price.  But I cannot guarantee the links I posted direct to the lowest price available.

Believe me, I didn’t expect that lol.

I was recently looking at the list of top earners at Payperpost, a paid blogging site. One of the top earners has a blog with huge traffic coming in. The blog’s alexa ranking is in the 100k’s while mine is at 800k’s. I browsed the blog and noticed that most, if not all of the posts are all personal – about the blogger’s everyday life.

I didn’t know that a lot of people are so interested in one’s life, one that is not even a celebrity. My blog contains templates, resources and other info that anyone can use, but I still get a lot less traffic than the aforementioned blogger. So what am I doing wrong?

Well, I tried and I was able to find a few answers to another question… What is this blogger doing right?

• She actively participates in forums and other web communities.
• She participates and hosts contests that helps promote her blog.
• She goes out of her way with her posts, including posting videos of herself.
• She befriends and stay in contact with a lot of people she meets online.
• She created her own directory and forum.

(image from Antwerp Calling)

Booking Buddy is another travel search engine that searches several travel booking agents including Kayak.com (my favorite), Expedia, Travelocity, Cheaptickets, Orbitz, Hotwire, Priceline, and more.

All you need to do is enter the travel information then click the travel provider on the right side to search.  The only downside to this is that you have to click each travel provider to search all of them.  I usually end up searching Kayak so why not go to Kayak.com directly?

Infomercials
I admit, those infomercials I see on regular TV are so tempting.  Now that I have the basement to take care of, I keep finding myself saying “That would be great for (cleaning) the basement.” as I watch.  The Space Bags would be great to store items especially that there’s a chance the basement might get flooded.  The Swivel Sweeper seems to be a very easy and convenient picker-upper.

Hanging picture frames
I decided to hang a collage of frames on the walls in the basement.  But I hate doing handiwork.  And if I wait for the men to do it for me, it will never be done soon enough.  Then I remembered I saw in a commercial these removable hanging mounts.  All you need is stick them to the wall and they remove easily too.  I’ve been searching for a while until I finally found it!  It’s the 3M Command products.  Now I can’t wait to print my pictures, put them in frames and hang them.

Random confession
My boarding pass template is not available for download.  One has to email me to get the template.  I get a few emails that contain only a few words or sound more like a demand instead of a request…

• “boarding pass template”
• “i need this template for…”
• “hello”
• “-”
• “Template for STD”
• “borading pass example will be use for…”

I actually didn’t send the template to the email senders.  I know it’s bitchy of me, but I couldn’t help it.  If those who wrote me those emails will email me again with a more decent email, I would send them the template.

There was this one forum I once frequently visited that has a sub-forum where the members help each other out with the layouts of their blogs.

One forum member (Miss A) had a problem making her blog appear similarly in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.  Another member (Mr. B) responded that Firefox is a lot better than Internet Explorer anyway so he suggested focusing on how the blog appears in Firefox.

I am not going to argue about which browser is better (that’s why the title is Internet Explorer AND Firefox, not Internet Explorer VS Firefox).  But I totally disagree with Mr. B.  It doesn’t matter which browser is better, a good webdesigner must create a website that appears the same on both browsers.  But since we are just bloggers and sometimes technically challenged, that may not be possible.  So if that is not possible, focus on how your blog appears on the browser most of your visitors use.

My stats indicate that 67.68% of my visitors use Internet Explorer and only 25.71% use Firefox.  So I make my blog’s appearance on Internet Explorer a priority over the others.

(image from ZeroGSpaceCow.com)

I’ve been complaining about our internet service with RCN.  So I finally decided to move to a different company – Time Warner Cable.  I thought everything will be better… not really.  Time Warner internet speed is slower than that of RCN.  There’s a difference of almost 300 KB/s in download speed and 3 KB/s in upload speed.  The connection is still fast, but I was aiming to sort of upgrade when I change services.

I finally have cable TV though.  I’ve never subscribed to cable TV before coz I don’t watch much TV.  I only need the regular (broadcast) channels.  I still don’t need the other channels.  But after getting my TV for the basement, the broadcast channels weren’t clear.

One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me and my brother who is four years older than I am. I was maybe one and a half years old and had just recovered from an accident in which my arm had been broken among other injuries.

Someone had given me a little ‘tea set’ as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys. Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news and my brother was playing nearby in the living room when I brought Daddy a little cup of ‘tea’, which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home. My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was ‘just the cutest thing!!’ My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up, then says, ‘Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get water is the toilet??’

(Thank you Sara for the email)

Click on image to enlarge

Come Spring, we’ll be a full house.  My brother, his wife, my aunt and her three teenage kids are visiting from the Philippines.  That will be a total of nine adults in the house.  Sofabeds and airbeds are being readied as I type.  It will be fun but a bit crowded and expensive.  We figured we need to rent a car to go to places out of subway’s reach.

Stay tuned for pictures.  There will be lots of them