So I was surfing the web a couple of days ago and found an interesting website, Blogrush.com. The website’s main purpose is to drive traffic to your blog by displaying a widget on your site that shows other blogs. In return, you get credits for each time the widget is displayed on your site. W ith each credit, your blog is displayed on other blogs throughout its network. Seems interesting enough so I joined, as you’ve probably noticed from the little blogrush widget on my sidebar.
I’ve been using the site for 2 days and so far my blog have been syndicated 300 times throughout the network. I was a bit surprised by that since my blog is just starting and I don’t think I get more than 100 uniques a day. But that is a good surprise. The reason for this is the fact that the site gives you bonus credits for traffic generated on your site. For example, in the 2 days this blog has only generated 74 unique visitors thus giving me 74 credits. But the site added an additioanl 328 bonus credits, which is a good thing.

In addition, the 300 times my blog has been shown, I was able to generate 3 clicks. That’s 3 more visitors my site would not have gotten if I didn’t join the site. I know it doesn’t sound like much to the “big” blogs out there.. But for me it’s something… the more visitors the betterSo if you haven’t checked it out yet.. give it a try.. you may actually like it.. Oh yeah if you decide to join..

Give me a little love by clicking on my referral link ..

if you don’t mind..

I haven’t heard of this film until last week when my wife asked me to find Juno’s OST. After finding and listening to the soundtrack I was really impressed and asked my wife what the movie was about. She gave me her summary from the advertisement she’s seen and we decided we were gonna watch it this weekend.

The film stars Jennifer Gardner and Jason Bateman as a couple that couldn’t conceive and was looking to adopting a baby. Ellen Page plays the pregnant teenager “Juno” who decided that she couldn’t abort the baby but also could not take care of it herself.

The story starts when Juno turns to the local Pennysaver in hopes of finding an advertisement that will solve all her problems.  And low and behold she finds a real elegant photo of Jen and Jason and knew just from the photo alone that they were the ones that will be raising her child.

The film was well written and original. There were great lines in this film and Ellen played the teenage pregnant role part to a perfection. Jennifer played the desperate woman who needed to be mother part great as well. There was nothing predictable about this film as you were often left wondering how it would end. Would Ellen give the child to the couple or is she gonna feel connected to the child and decide to keep it herself?

She then realizes that she in love with the boy that got her pregnant to begin with who was played by Michael Cera (from Superbad).  This of course causes more twists and turns to the plot. This makes Juno confused but yet through all these emotions she still manages to keep her composure and go on.  Let me say that although it may sound like real stressful time for Juno she did not let it show.  In fact she was the life of the film that gave it a comedic twist.

The ending was an unexpected one to say the least. I was really impressed with this whole film and will definitely recommend it to anybody out there but specially if you have a daughter, or a teenager at that. So go out and check this film out.. it’s definitely not a waste of time. I’ll give it a 4.5/5.0

This is kind of a big deal.. we’re seriously thinking about moving back to Los Angeles. We’ve been in South Carolina for over 2 years and it just isn’t doing it for us. Both our jobs suck and although we’re making OK money right now we’re just barely keeping our head above water. That’s because we actually got a real mortgage here and our daughter is in a private school which is averaging around $800 to $1000 month. The public school system here is ranked one of the lowest in the nation and we just don’t want her to end up with a South Carolina education =/. I hope that statement isn’t too politically incorrect but people here are just SLOW. To add to this, we haven’t made a circle of close friends here just a bunch of acquaintances. So all in all we’re lonely and we don’t even hang around with my sister and her family. Since I haven’t mentioned it.. part of the reason we moved here was to be closer to my family when my mom passed in 2004. big success that’s been.

Enter California… we grew there, my wife’s entire family is there, my dad’s there, all of our friends are there and my wife’s company is pleading here to come back. It may seem like a no brainer I know but here’s the catch… If we move back to LA we’ll be renting, what probably will be a one bedroom apartment and well I’m sure everyone knows how much housing is in LA. Also I’ll have to look for a new job, don’t know how long that will take. We got no savings, just driving to LA alone will cost around $4-5K, then putting a deposit for the rental will be around $2-3K. So that’s going to be a big issue.

But… if we get some financial help from family.. it maybe doable, as that’s the main reason why we haven’t packed up and left yet. So we’ll play it by ear and see how it goes…. Honestly I WANT TO move back now.. I gave SC a try and really tried to make it work here but it seems like a lost cause. T

If your computer is taking forever to power on or restart then you might have one too many programs that are set to run at startup automatically. This can hog up your memory and your PCs overall performance. A quick fix would be to disable the items you don’t need or at least do not need each and every time the computer is turned on.

1. Click on Start
2. Run
3. Type: msconfig
4. Enter

This will open the System Configuration Utility

1. Select the Start Up tab
2. The command column will show you the directory path of the item
3. This should help you choose which items you want to disable
4. Unselect the items you don’t want to run during startup

Tweaking the System Startup items will help you preserve memory for the apps that you really want to use them for. Freeing the memory will also keep your PC running happy and healthy.

The Windows Quick Launch Toolbar is designed to help you launch applications, photos, folders, email or any other item in a very “quick” way. It’s a very useful tool and very easy to use. It amazes me that alot of Windows XP users do not utilize this feature. In my opinion its a necessity when using XP and is a real time saver.

If you don’t already see the Quick Launch Toolbar on your Taskbar then follow these directions:

1. Right click on your Taskbar
2. Highlight Tools
3. Select Quick Launch

After selecting Quick Launch you should see new icons on your Taskbar. By default the Quick Launch Toolbar is only set to display 3 icons and the rest are hidden. You will need to tweek it to fit your style. Follow these directions on tweeking it to taste just the way you like.

1. Place your mouse cursor over the dotted line
2. Your mouse cursor should turn into an arrow with two directions.
3. Left click and drag to the right to expand the size
4. Release the mouse when your desired size is reached. The result should be something like this:
5. Of course it will depend on how many items are already on your Quick Launch Toolbar.

1. Hover your mouse cursor over the icon you want to delete
2. Right Click
3. Highlight Delete and Left Click. See screenshot:
4. 

1. To add items to your Quick Launch Toolbar
2. You simply just select an Item
3. Drag to the Toolbar.
4. And Drop to where you want the item to be

When you hover your mouse cursor over an item on the toolbar it will show you a description of that item.
If you don’t like that description you can change it to anything you want:

1. Select an Item
2. Right Click
3. Select and Click on Properties
4. Select the “General” tab
5. Change the text on the top of the “General” tab screen to whatever you want.
6. Here’s an example:

What is going on with Mr. Bryant this season? First gets his wish by getting some help with the Pau trade. Then his whole team starts to play like a real Laker team whom as we speak are sitting on top of the Western Conference. And throughout all this he’s been the catalyst leading the team and yet Kobe also leads the league in technical fouls. I love the man, I think he’s the greatest player in the league right now but come on. Every play he doesn’t get the call his way (whether correct or not) he barks at the ref like a hound dog and usually just doesn’t stop. It’s one thing to work the referees but another thing to just get under their skin. In the past he’s been known not to be shy but this season it’s been ridiculous. For a man that’s considered the number one candidate to be the MVP (He still gets my vote by the way) this just doesn’t add up.
In my humble opinion I think he needs to let it go.. If he doesn’t get his call on a play just let it go and play ball. To be honest he’s averaging over 10 free throws per game and I think he’s getting his fair share of calls. Not only that, he’s @ 13 technical fouls right now and a couple more techs and he’s going to be suspended for a game and we just can’t afford that. The west is so competitive right now, that one game can be a big difference in playoff rankings come April. With all that said, if the game is on the line and he knows the referees are ready to tea him up he’s capable of just letting it go. So for the love of God, Kobe just let it go and play your MVP level ball and the calls will come your way.

(Image: NBA.com)

It is often viewed by Filipinos that the only way to get your head above water in the Philippines was get out of the country and go to the US or other countries that offer more opportunity. This is due to the poor economy and lack of jobs in the Philippines. That may be true in most cases but Henry Sy is an exception. Henry did the complete opposite, he left China to go to the Philippines to make his fortune at the age of 12. And make a fortune he did, Henry Sy is a billionaire with a net worth of 1.7 billion as reported by Forbes.com, although other sources say he is worth much more than that.

Henry started his entrepreneurship in the 1950s by selling cheap American shoes at his small store in Manila. He later branched out to department stores and later onto Supermarkets. His claim to fame was when he opened the first Supermall in Manila in 1985. Today, what started off as a tiny grocery store has grown into an empire of over 17 Malls across the Philippines and continues to grow.

With all the success this man has accomplished throughout his life, you would expect him to be uptight and reserved, but he is the complete opposite. According to TIMEasia he still goes to grocery stores and shops for food for his family. And if that isn’t enough, he even cooks what he buys and serves his family lunch, this man is truly a family man. In fact, although his business ventures have grown into such big corporations they are still run by his family and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Henry Sy was born on Christmas day which is very fitting for a man that has accomplished so much success in his life. He is now 83 years old and and is truly a filipino success story. He is a great example of being a leader and not being a follower.

Are the 2008 Los Angeles Lakers the team to beat in the NBA? The answer to that question is NO. That answer might come off as a surprise to many people considering I’m a die hard Laker fan. Don’t get me wrong I want them to win the championship this year, next year and every year thereafter but the truth is they do not have the experience right now. The only Laker players on the current roster that have the playoff experience past the first round are Kobe, Fisher and Luke. The rest of the team do not have the experience needed. With that said, everyone always sleeps on the Spurs until they realize that they are still playing in June. So my take is this, the Spurs are the NBA Champions and until they are knocked out of the playoffs THEY are the team to beat. They have the experience and they always seem to turn it on at this time of the season and of course the playoffs. I hate to admit this as watching the Spurs play is like watching paint dry but that’s beside the point because they do what it takes to win.

OK so we’ve settled that San Antonio is the team to beat and that’s great and dandy. But… and this is going to be a big BUT.. LA has the TALENT along with Mr. 24. The Lakers might not be the team to beat, but they are contenders in a big way. Its true that most of the roster do not have playoff experience but speaking as a loyal fan whose followed the team from day one this season I believe that the lack of experience will be outweighed with the talent, drive and determination of the team. Sure San Antonio is the team to beat but LA will be the team to beat team.