Thursday, February 18, 2010
Grown up Shoes
Back when I was young, I was so excited, anxious even, to finally be able to wear slip-on shoes. The kind that doesn’t have buckles or straps to keep them on your feet. I firmly belived then that the day I am allowed to wear slip-ons would be the day I am declared a grown-up.
One pair stands out in my memory. I was in my elementary years, grades one to two when I was obsessed to have slip-ons shoes for school.
My shoes back then are very sturdy black shoes. They are shiny black leather shoes that has a silver buckle. Since a child’s feet grows so much in just a year, my shoes are always one size bigger to save on money. Slip on shoes will logically be harder to wear if worn in a size or two bigger than one’s feet. So, I was fated to have stuffed shoes so long as growth spurts are in the foreseeable future.
My shoes owing to its size always had a shoe filler to make it fit me nicely. On better days, it would a “cork” that is available in the counter where you pay for your shoes. On could’ve-been-better days, my shoes are stuffed with wads of tissue paper, or worse, newspaper.
How I envy my classmates who were wearing slip-on shoes. I think they look very grown-up in them. One day, when I can no longer resist the urge and absolute need to know how it feels to wear one, I asked my classmate if she would let me wear her shoes for the day. I ended up taking it home with me and striking an agreement with her that I can wear her shoes for a week.
We were about the same size of feet, so the shoes fit quite snugly. Of course I had a hard time wearing those shoes, but I didn’t let that stop me. The tip of the shoes are pinching my toes and the I am already developing blisters on day one, but I grin and bear it. It was a small price to pay for being a grown-up, I thought.
Now, as a grown-up with an 8 to five job, slip on shoes, particularly the heeled ones are the norm. Interestingly, I now look forward to weekends when I can take off my grown-up shoes and wiggle my toes freely.
One pair stands out in my memory. I was in my elementary years, grades one to two when I was obsessed to have slip-ons shoes for school.
My shoes back then are very sturdy black shoes. They are shiny black leather shoes that has a silver buckle. Since a child’s feet grows so much in just a year, my shoes are always one size bigger to save on money. Slip on shoes will logically be harder to wear if worn in a size or two bigger than one’s feet. So, I was fated to have stuffed shoes so long as growth spurts are in the foreseeable future.
My shoes owing to its size always had a shoe filler to make it fit me nicely. On better days, it would a “cork” that is available in the counter where you pay for your shoes. On could’ve-been-better days, my shoes are stuffed with wads of tissue paper, or worse, newspaper.
How I envy my classmates who were wearing slip-on shoes. I think they look very grown-up in them. One day, when I can no longer resist the urge and absolute need to know how it feels to wear one, I asked my classmate if she would let me wear her shoes for the day. I ended up taking it home with me and striking an agreement with her that I can wear her shoes for a week.
We were about the same size of feet, so the shoes fit quite snugly. Of course I had a hard time wearing those shoes, but I didn’t let that stop me. The tip of the shoes are pinching my toes and the I am already developing blisters on day one, but I grin and bear it. It was a small price to pay for being a grown-up, I thought.
Now, as a grown-up with an 8 to five job, slip on shoes, particularly the heeled ones are the norm. Interestingly, I now look forward to weekends when I can take off my grown-up shoes and wiggle my toes freely.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
A TALE OF TWO GIANTS: a simple guide to choosing the right blogging platform
A TALE OF TWO GIANTS: a simple guide to choosing the right blogging platform
I have been a blogger for less than a year and a religious blogger for less than that. I have also shuttled back and forth between two popular blogging platforms, Wordpress and Blogger, in my quest for blogging greatness.
I claim to be no master in the world of blogging, or the blogosphere I should say, much less in the whole of digiworld. My little knowledge of technical jargon is limited to very basic stuff like KB, MB, GB, MP, and RAM. Other than these, my head spins and blood gushes out of my nose.
So me attempting to give a review of Wordpress vis a vis Blogger is nothing short of a little girl comparing her two favorite dolls based not on very techinical stuff but from very own experience. I hope this simple guide helps non-techies like myself choose which platform works better for them. This guide will be limited to Blogger and Wordpress as they are the only ones I'm familiar with.
NUMBER 1 GOAL-SETTING
Are you blogging simply to enjoy yourself, share your views and establish new relationships? Or are you blogging to earn a few bucks?
Wordpress allows you to blog for free, however, this limits your options of placing ads or selling ad space. You can also opt to self-host your Wordpress in other sites offering web-hosting, which allows you to earn some money from your blog by placing ads.
Blogger on the other hand is a free blogging tool which already allows its subscribers to tweak their templates and place ads.
NUMBER 2 YOUR NET-SAVVINESS
Do you understand how your templates work? Do you know how to tweak your html without disrupting the whole template? If you do, then tweaking Wordpress templates for blogs that are slef-hosted or are subscriber to wordpress itself will be a walk in the park. If not, you're better of with Blogger which allows "push-button publishing". You can just add the html/javascript in "Add gadget" and you're done.
NUMBER 3 USER-FRIENDLINESS
For easy navigation, Wordpress win hands down. You can access everything from your dashboard without changing windows or pages.
Whereas in Blogger, navigation takes awhile which can be quite confusing. From your dashboard, you can see your blogs however adding a new post takes two to three more pages. There are also links that would actually take you away from your current page and into another Google-related site.
NUMBER 4 EXPOSURE
The thing that I love most about Wordpress is how it drives traffic into your blog. Once you publish your blog, it appears in the global dashboard as one of the new entries, thereby giving you free exposure and encouraging fellow Wordpress bloggers to visit your site. If your blog pulls in quite a number of traffic, Wordpress rewards you by being on the TOP BLOGS list, again ensuring maximum exposure to the Wordpress community.
For Blogger, however, you are pretty much on your own.
But if you would choose not to show your blog to anyone at all, but platforms offer the choice not to make it available to anyone else except yourself. After all, a weblog started as simple diary entries before transforming into the entire blogosphere.
NUMBER 5 CSS TEMPLATE VERSATILITY
For sure template versatility comes with a price in Wordpress, it's either you host your blog somewhere else or you pay the fee to allow you to edit your template if you want to add a plug-in or a widget. For a personal blog that is not designed to earn some cash, the basic Wordpress templates would suffice. But for others who would want to add more personality and spice to their blogs, it would be best to sign-up up with Blogger.
For me, I have decided to stick it out with Blogger now that I have built-up my blog's reputation. I have also decided to make my blog earn and pay a few bills for me, and Blogger is letting me do that for free. I still maintain my Wordpress blog though for networking and exposure purposes.
Earning from blogging isn't as easy as some make it out to be. And it all starts from one decision, which platform would be best suit your needs. After this is made, the harder part begins, blogging.
Have a happy blog life!
Friday, November 27, 2009
ADB's MY VIEW Video Competition
The Asian Development Bank is launching a video making contest aimed at educating the world about climate change.
All you have to do is make a 1 to 5 minute digital film about climate change. It can be in any digital video format, including 3gp, and in any genre.
Although the video can be in any language, it is recommended that you put in english subtitles.
Then, upload it to youtube.
The grand prize is USD2,500
Entries will be accepted until January 31, 2010.
For complete contest mechanics, click this.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Work from Home Options
With the internet explosion a few years back, many people made their fortune in it. Recently, the new internet millionaires include the makers of Facebook and Twitter, being the most innovative services around today.
With internet users reaching almost 1.8 million according to InternetWorldStats, this has become another venue besides the television, print and radio to advertise in. And so followed another explosion of sites that offer services to drive your traffic, increase your SEO ranking and therefore increase your income, via sales or otherwise.
This new playing field opened countless possibilities, not the least of which is being able to earn a living from the home and freeing oneself from nosy, overbearing bosses. Many people welcomed this shift, and many of them are mothers who would like to spend more time with her children but still put money on the table.
Here is a list of some very good options in no particular order according to the wisdom of cumulated experience of friends.
My lot is a forum with pay. If you love sharing your views with people and get a thrill out of instant and constant interaction in forums, then MyLot is for you. You get paid for every topic you post, every response you post and get and refferals too!
Blogsvertise is perfect for people who dreams of making their blog earn enough to cover their living expenses, or just the gasoline for starters. You blog about products, you get paid. Simple enough. All you need is a creative mind, an eloquent tongue and an internet connection and you're all set-up. But if you would like to advertise, you are also welcome.
Chitika is an advertising company that lets you earn everyday with on-line advertising that is tied with Adsense, allowing you to actually earn more than with Adsense alone. This is different as ads from Chitika will run only if your traffic comes from a search engine. If it isn't another ad will pop up, based on your settings.
With internet users reaching almost 1.8 million according to InternetWorldStats, this has become another venue besides the television, print and radio to advertise in. And so followed another explosion of sites that offer services to drive your traffic, increase your SEO ranking and therefore increase your income, via sales or otherwise.
This new playing field opened countless possibilities, not the least of which is being able to earn a living from the home and freeing oneself from nosy, overbearing bosses. Many people welcomed this shift, and many of them are mothers who would like to spend more time with her children but still put money on the table.
Here is a list of some very good options in no particular order according to the wisdom of cumulated experience of friends.
My lot is a forum with pay. If you love sharing your views with people and get a thrill out of instant and constant interaction in forums, then MyLot is for you. You get paid for every topic you post, every response you post and get and refferals too!
Blogsvertise is perfect for people who dreams of making their blog earn enough to cover their living expenses, or just the gasoline for starters. You blog about products, you get paid. Simple enough. All you need is a creative mind, an eloquent tongue and an internet connection and you're all set-up. But if you would like to advertise, you are also welcome.
Chitika is an advertising company that lets you earn everyday with on-line advertising that is tied with Adsense, allowing you to actually earn more than with Adsense alone. This is different as ads from Chitika will run only if your traffic comes from a search engine. If it isn't another ad will pop up, based on your settings.
is a very good option for those who want to manage their own time. It offers countless jobs for freelancers. It also sets a standard for its providers and freelancers to ensure the quality of service offered and also raise the freelancers money-earning level. All you have to do is sign-up, update your profile, take their tests and wait for job openings that suit your preferences
Bidvertiser is one of the sites that pay you for every ad clicked in your site.
Sell your ad space with BidVertiser
0Desk is another site that offers employment to freelancers. It looks similar to an office setting where you have colleagues, an support group, only you manage your own time. It also offers an option of having your computer oDesk ready to give you a chance to receive more offers.
And to ensure that you get paid, don't forget to set-up an account with one of the most reliable money-transfer sites, Paypal.
Bidvertiser is one of the sites that pay you for every ad clicked in your site.
Sell your ad space with BidVertiser
0Desk is another site that offers employment to freelancers. It looks similar to an office setting where you have colleagues, an support group, only you manage your own time. It also offers an option of having your computer oDesk ready to give you a chance to receive more offers.
And to ensure that you get paid, don't forget to set-up an account with one of the most reliable money-transfer sites, Paypal.
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