Beautiful Blogger Award..

What?!  I’m sure the ‘beautiful blogger’ part will raise some eyebrows hehe but who cares. I’m pretty sure Z of Sreisaat Adventures in Cambodia still has 20/20 vision and her eyesight is working just fine when she gave me this award. And oh, I suddenly remembered ’sreisaat’ in Khmer language means ‘beautiful lady’ so she knows about beautiful, di ba Z?

Anyway, do drop by her blog. It’s a great read and she has really lovely lovely photographs of Cambodia and places she has visited. Yes, she’s my friend and I think I’ve mentioned before that I knew her through blogging and I’ve met her a few months back but I’ve been hooked reading her blog entries much longer than that. Do visit..

Blog award mechanics. Oops, this award comes with some strings attached, hmm? The recipient is asked to reveal seven things about her/himself. Ok, (you can hear me heaving a sigh of relief now..) it’s not really requiring me to recite tongue twisters while rolling my eyes and dancing to the tune of Lambada (grrr I super hate this song..). Hehe, just 7 things about me..

• I was born and raised in Albay Province, Philippines. So that makes me a true-blooded Bicolana. Uragon ( Bicol term meaning – a live-wire, go getter, a fighter) ako noh!

• I love watching Korean/Japanese movies/dramas. Mainly for the cinematography and I love hearing spoken Korean/Japanese language. And for some really really poignant stories..

• I am an experimental cook and my husband is my ‘guinea pig’. So far, he hasn’t been poisoned or rushed to the hospital because of my cooking.  And I do turn up some delicious stuff every now and then.

• I’m a shop o’ holic. Shopping and bargain hunting is a favorite pastime.

• I love the beach and nature. I grew up in a farm and we were just a 5-minutes walk away from the beach.

• I love playing tickle-till-you-surrender games with Chinks and Hi-ace. I always end up the loser.

• I’m addicted to taking strolls, long walks and soaking the atmosphere of every place I visit. When I travel you can usually find me in a market, a corner cafe just sitting and observing how life is for the locals.

I’m passing on the award to.. (I can’t come up with 15, so here’s some of my favorite reads..)

• I Love/Hate America - thought provoking yet very sensible posts from Bingkee. Always worth the visit..

• A Simple Life – I love Liza’s practical tips and tidbits of her life she constantly posts.

• Buhay sa Korea – a Filipina’s insights and experiences while living in Korea. Very informative and entertaining posts..

• Taxi Diary – Inspiring, moving stories. This is one of my absolute reads. The author even got publishing deals from his blog. I’m not sure he’ll post this but his blog is definitely going to my beautiful blogger award.

• Life of a Breadwinner - informative posts, places and events and best of all, very nice blogger =)

• American in Davao – unique insights to Filipino culture and tradition. A very interesting read.

• Coriander Dreams – laid back and personal. that’s how I would describe Coriander Dreams..She’s also into traveling which makes her blog all the more interesting.

• Brown Pinay – another favorite. Read on her latest experiences, tips, opinions and more.

And don’t forget the blog award mechanics..

1. Thank & link the person that gave you the award.
2. Pass this award onto 15 bloggers you’ve recently discovered and think are fantastic.
3. Contact said Blogs and let them know they’ve won.
4. State 7 things about yourself.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or Email. Thanks for visiting!

Blogger Tips: Earn By Selling Links with Ask2Link

I’ve been looking for ways to monetize my other sites. I haven’t been really that successful with Google Adsense with my other blogs and I’m far more interested in finding other ways to earn money from my blogs. A year ago, a blogger friend suggested selling links. Hmmm, interesting. I have tried out two well-known text links companies for my blogs and I just love it! Regular monthly income and I don’t do anything but update my blogs and generally keep it alive.

This made me far more interested in selling text links as a way to earn from blogs and I’ve been looking around for similar companies that could help me sell text links. Then I found Ask2Link from another blog and I signed up. Getting things started with them is real easy. I’ve just installed the widget and once you’re done, your site will be up in their marketplace. It does help to have a PR when you sign up though.

Why I like Ask2Link? (1) You have the freedom to choose your links selling price. (2) Its easy to sign up. (3) Their text link ads are non-obtrusive. You can easily blend it in your sidebar.  (4) No minimum payout. Now this is a really good point. They pay every month so even if you just earned a small amount you don’t have to wait to enjoy it. (5) Publishers are accepted no matter where you are. (6) Full control of text link ads you add to your site. (7) And best of all, they support more varieties of website platforms even WORDPRESS.COM and BLOGSPOT blogs.

Before I had a hard time looking for text link brokers that accept  wordpress.com and blogspot sites but Ask2Link does. So, I had been trying this out on some of my Blogspot blogs. I’m still waiting to get my first link and hopefully it’ll be soon. Check out Ask2Link website and sign up to earn from your blogs.

I Totally Forgot..

To Renew THIS DOMAIN! For those who dropped by late last Sunday and early Monday, I’m so sorry. Pinaywifespeaks went on a short holiday =). I own several domains and all of them I bought from GoDaddy and domain management has been a breeze for those domains.

I’ve forgotten that this domain – Pinaywifespeaks, I have registered elsewhere,then transfered to Hostgator. I haven’t been checking my email and Hostgator has been emailing me about the expiring domain. Then I checked the site last Monday coz my cousin said something weird was coming out when she types in my URL, and my blog site was replaced by a webpage selling adult toys and photos. Hehe so this sent me in a panic mode, and I was thinking, ‘Has my site been hacked?? Who would even bother to hack this?’

I then contacted Hostgator’s 24/7 tech support and you can imagine my relief when they said that its simply a case of the domain expiring. Ok, I just love Hostgator’s support team. They are very accommodating and patient in guiding a semi-crazy person like me. I’m not very familiar with renewing domains and billing with Hostgator but the guy from tech support guided me all throughout. Few minutes and less than $20 later, I had my domain back. Whew! I should really set a reminder about this. I’ll probably be putting this on auto-renewal mode so this won’t happen again.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Pinaywifespeaks

Time passed by just like a breeze and I was browsing through my archives that I realized February 2008 was when I first started with this blog. And now its hard to believe that I have been at it for 2 years already. There where reasons why I didn’t blog earlier, but I’m glad I did.

This blog has been my virtual playground, a place to take out my frustrations, to rant and vent. How many times did I mess up with my Wordpress installation – read posts here and here, that time when I forgot that I exceeded my bandwidth limitations, my paranoia about transferring web hosting, how many times the whole site went into frenzy just because I could not get enough of tweaking the themes?  It’ll be an understatement if I say I learned something from blogging. I should say, I learned a lot. I also discovered a lot of things about myself and blogging..

…That I have the aptitude for things technical and for tweaking this and that. For understanding what’s behind the blog – the themes, the plugins, the site structure etc.

…That yeah, though I’m not a great writer I can work on it and practice more, still some people somehow survive reading my entries

…That yahoo! I could actually earn from blogging! This blog supports itself. My initial outlay was for the domain registration only, while the monthly hosting bills are all taken care of out of the blog’s earnings. I know some blogging purists would say inserting paid links is something almost like a crime but hey! this is my blog, I’m sure people who visit understands that while I love to blog, write, share thoughts, I’m still a practical person, I don’t have bottomless pits of money to support the blog, so occasional paid links are fine and I do strive my best to be discrete and choosy about paid links.

…  I realized I could actually find lots of people who share the same views, who could somehow appreciate what I have to say. I love receiving emails and comments from readers. Some would email me when they are coming over to Cambodia, asking for travel advice, some would give me suggestions, some would critique a post.. This is for me, is one of the most gratifying things about blogging – connecting with people who reads the blog.

… that I could actually find friends through this blog. I found friends I could constantly correspond with through email, some blogging friends from all over, and here in Phnom Penh, I found a great set of Filipina friends (Zarah, Josiet, Che..)  all thanks to blogging.

Blogging has been a superb learning experience for me. Being able to earn from it is an added bonus and I love the extra income I get out of blogging. So what’s in store for this blog for the next year? More posts, just more.. Things I dunno yet, so do keep visiting, explore and experience blogging with Pinaywifespeaks.

Changes, Changes and A New Blog

I’ve been doing the laundry this morning and its one of the chores around the house that I don’t particularly enjoy. And since I almost loathe it, I would usually allow my mind to wander and ironically this is usually the time when ideas and plans are best conceptualized.

Here’s what I’ve been mulling on while the sheets were being laundered. I’ve decided to make more changes to this blog. When I first started this I really had no idea what this will be all about, more like a random thoughts – personal blog thing. Then it just evolved by itself I guess and just last year I made changes to organize all posts. For sometime, Pinaywifespeaks.com  has been my blog for musings about living in Cambodia, about life in the Philippines, and also about blogging and the web.

I found myself getting more and more immersed in Cambodian culture and lifestyle so lately that seemed to be what I had been constantly writing about. So then from now on this would be focusing mainly on three things:

• Living in Cambodia and exploring Cambodian culture
• of course, Philippines is still home for me, so expect some occasional posts about Pinas
• and my other passion, Travel. Just featuring travels, places, travel promos and deals.

I’ll be removing the blogging and web categories soon. Though previous posts on these categories will still remain under Exploring the Web category. I will be running a featured Cambodian blog soon too.

Last year, on a whim I registered another domain – Lui-bloggera.com, then I promptly forgot about it and it has been sitting on my hosting account like a wet blanket. I should really bang my  head often on the wall! It’s time I make use of this domain and not let it go to waste.

I’m developing it into a new personal blog where I could blah blah about my other interest. Topics would be…

• blogging – Wordpress, earning with blogs, blogging tips etc,
• trend hunting –   i love trends! ,
• latest buzz  - celebs, gossip, luxury lifestyle,tech, fashion – yeah I’ll be indulging my gossiping tendencies a bit..

I’ll be awfully busy these next few days to get this off the ground and I’m super excited. =) I guess I’ll be loosing some sleep over this and getting some pimples again, but that’s nothing acne scar removal creams can’ t take care of. I’m always excited about new things, new projects.  Things are looking up and I do hope you check out my latest blog – Lui-Bloggera.com..

Duh! Is PPP Really That Cheap?

I know it’s Christmas season, but I’m not talking about any shopping. I’m referring to one paid to blog/review program which has been around for sometime already. One way I keep my blogs going is by doing reviews and this one has been a source of good review opportunities in the past.

Sadly, the past year, it doesn’t really have much to offer in terms of good opps not just in price but the sites that are offered for review. I’m quite picky when it comes to websites that I link to. So I found myself doing less and less work for them.

Anyway, yesterday I decided to check out what’s new with their site and lol! I was really surprised with the offers there. $.50 for a post? And they have a lot of requirements aside from the link! And they also have the nerve to demand PR3 or higher..Is it really that cheap? I realize that we are in dire times now, the marketplace is brimming with more bloggers waiting to write review but come on! $.50???

It’s not like I’m asking for payment enough for me to take florida vacations (but that’s okay too..), but those prices are simply too cheap. I know I can’t do anything about it, its their company’s decision to do that, but I won’t be writing reviews for them anymore. Not really a loss, as I have some more much reliable blog for reviews company who offer regular opportunities at fair prices.

Strange Questions Meme

I’m getting a little hooked on questions memes. For one, I don’t have to think much hehe..And I could simply write the truth and voila! I have a post..

Anyway, here’s an interesting one I found somewhere. Some questions sounds like you’re in a beauty contest or something lol! I won’t be tagging anyone but if you find the questions interesting, fee free to grab it and answer. I’d love to read your answers to this too.

If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone?

No. I’d rather not. Why should I allow someone be on agony knowing I’ll be dead? On the other hand, if there is someone who hates me really badly and wants to see me die, I’ll probably tell them, at least somebody will be happy I won’t be around. Although, no one has come to hate me that much yet.

If a new medicine were developed that would cure arthritis but cause a fatal reaction in 1 percent of those who took it, would you want it to be released to the public?

All things have their bad sides and I guess as long as there is an explicit warning of its possible fatal effects, why not if it could save lives too?

If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the body or the mind of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?

I would want to retain my 30-year old MIND. Dyusko! I’m trying to rid myself of excess fats nga so I wouldn’t want to have this body for the next 60 years of my life. And besides, even if I had a to-kill for body, what use would it be if I have a useless mind?

If at birth you could select the profession your child would eventually pursue, would you do so?

No way. I love what I’m doing now and I’d like my child to have the same happy experience in finding whatever profession she can be happy with. There are lots of people earning lots of moolah but they are unhappy. I’d much rather settle for something that can earn me just a decent income and enjoying it too rather than something that can earn me millions and make working daily an excruciating experience. So, I’d want my child make her own choices.

If you knew there would be a nuclear war in one week, what would do? (you can’t stop it)

I could do two things. One is to figure out how to survive it. I also have to learn, if I survive it how would it affect me? I mean, would I be grossly disfigured or what? If I’ll survive with only my torso intact, I think I’d much prefer not to survive.  The second thing, I’d do is party like there is no tomorrow. Do happy things, be with family.

Would you accept twenty years of extraordinary happiness and fulfillment if it meant you had to die at the end of the period?

Nope. Disappointments, sad things, well, I think these make life more special. Not that I like being unhappy, its simply like, to appreciate happiness you got to experience some sadness. I’d much rather go through life with its regular ups and downs. If there is happiness all the time, how could I even appreciate it if I don’t know what sadness feels like?

(more…)

Tag From Z

Haha! Love the post title.. This I got from Facebook and (since I’m out of post ideas here well.. this is it). Thanks, Z!

1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth
Coffee..(and its dinner time and I’m having coffee… adik!)

2. Where was your profile picture taken?
RUPP. That’s Chinks ha not me..(my profile photo in Facebook)

3. Can you play Guitar Hero?
No. I don’t even have an idea what is that..

4. Name someone who made you laugh today?
Chinks and Hi-ace. They are so goofy and I had to laugh really hard coz they both trying to learn MJ’s Moonwalk.

5. How late did you stay up last night and why?
not late. about 9 pm. had to rest just had flu

6. If you could move somewhere else, where would it be ?
France. But we both like it here and besides I wanna stay put so Chinks will not have such a hard time adjusting.

7. Ever been kissed under fireworks?
Not yet. Haha as in now that its mentioned here, I kinda think it’ll be an interesting experience.

8. Which of your friends lives closest to you?
Netcy, Zarah, Josiet, Che, Mel.. most of my Khmer friends I met in Pinas are not here..

9. Do you believe ex’s can be friends?
No. Maybe its possible for some, not for me though. I’m just too maldita.

10. How do you feel about Dr Pepper?
Huh? No feelings at all. (Who is Dr. Pepper anyway?)

11. When was the last time you cried really hard?
Last Sunday, during the Pacquiao-Cotto match. And not because Pacquiao won ha..

12. Who took your profile picture?
me. coz it’s Chinkee’s photo..

13. Who was the last person you took a picture of?
Chinkee. She asked me to take photo of her wobbly, soon-to be uprooted front teeth. She wanted a souvenir so I ended taking a photo of her mouth.

(more…)

Just Ranting Bout My ISP!

I’m posting this one at a cafe. It’s entirely my fault anyway that our internet connection was cut off coz I totally forgot to pay the bill for October. The thing is were using MetNet and they don’t have a decent billing system. I was expecting I would be receiving a bill either by snail mail or email but nada, they would simply text you your bill for the month and when is the due date. They would usually do this two weeks before the due and two weeks is a long time for a person as frenzied as me.

Another thing I don’t like about the MetNet billing system is that you can’t check how much bandwidth you have already consumed and you simply have to take their word for how much your bill is. That is really hard to swallow for a conscentious consumer like myself. They just text you like, “Ok Customer____, Your bill for October is $___. Please pay by ___.” They don’t even mention how much MB/GB of bandwidth i have consumed so I am really doubtful now about the service.

I’m thinking now of changing my plan to just the 128kpbs but with unlimited upload/download for only $35, instead of the current one I’m using (256/2.5GB upload/download). Or if they can’t present me with detailed listing of my consumption when I go to their service center, then I’m considering terminating my subscription. Their service is okay, there are downtimes but nothing that can interfere with my work, what really just totally gets to my nerves is their billing system.

I feel highly doubtful about how much I consume coz for the past two months I’ve been strictly monitoring my usage with a bandwidth monitor. Last month my monitor says I have consumed 1.9GB less than the limit but my bill came in $75 when its supposed to be $35. So I called their customer service center and has been passed on from one person to another without getting any answer. I’ve also asked if its possible for me to check my bandwidth consumption online (like QBMore) but they don’t have that kind of facility. They really just expect you to pay whatever they say. I’m really okay with paying no matter how much as long as I am sure that is how much I have used..

(more…)

50 Questions Meme

I was surfing online and found this meme. And since I’m feeling a little bit bored and lazy I decided to post it and I’d like to tag Josiet and Zarah.

50 Questions:

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?

Whaaaaaa! I really really need to visit a hair salon and have my hair straightened. It’s just so frizzy.

2. How much cash do you have on you?

$25

3. What’s a word that rhymes with DOOR?

Ummm.. Core

4. Favorite planet?

Uranus. It’s not very popular and I think its unusual.

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?

Hi-ace’s nephew

6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?

I have no idea. Chinks keep changing it everyday, so you could say I have lots of missed calls because I don’t recognize my ringtone most of the time.

7. What shirt are you wearing?

Pink tank top

8. Do you label yourself?

Nope.

9. Name the brand of the shoes you’re currently wearing?

I’m wearing flip flops, no brand.

10. Bright or Dark Room?

Dark. My eyes find it easier to adjust..

(more…)

10 Steps to Faster Blog Indexing

I don’t profess to be an expert on blogging but after a two years of setting up blogs I learned a lot. I’ve set up dozens of blogs already. And the start-up phase is usually the most hectic and confusing part if you are not sufficiently organized. To make things easier for me I made myself a Wordpress set-up guide as well as blog indexing guide.

As soon as we have a blog set up of course, we’d want to have our blog indexed in search engines. But how do we do that? Blogs can actually get indexed without you doing anything except to post and update it. Especially if you are using Wordpress and set up the Ping Options.But if you go by this route, indexing may take time.Thankfully, there are lots of things you can do to have your blogs indexed faster.

Let me share my blog indexing guide list. Be sure to have at least 2-4 posts on your blog before you start doing this. This list has made things really easier for me.

10 Steps to Faster Blog Indexing:

1. Submit site to Google, Yahoo Directory, MSN, DMOZ..
2. Claim blog with Technorati.
3. Join BlogCataglog and MyblogLog and claim blog. – I find this very helpful and they send some traffic also once you have a community. They also publish a snippet of your RSS feed.
4. Submit blog to Blog and Website Directories.- There are countless free web directory sites to submit to,and it can be a little overwhelming. So choose a couple of sites and do it little by little and you don’t really need to submit to all of them. There are also softwares for website submissions you might want to have a look at that.
5. Blog hop and leave comments on several blogs. – But do make sure your comments are relevant to the blog posts. You wouldn’t want to be branded as a spammer, right? In any case, leaving comments and connecting with other bloggers is one of fun perks in blogging.
6. Exchange links with related blogs. – How? For me, simply asking nicely gets the best results. A lot of bloggers are open to exchanging links.
7. Join Entrecard and add widget to your blog. – I know some would say Entrecard is passe but I still get a good number of visitors from Entrecard without even doing much Entrecard dropping.
8. Write a profile page or add blog URL to your social networking profiles. – If you have personal profiles in sites like Facebook, YouTube, Linkd In, Twitter, MySpace, Plurk (the list is actually endless..) then make use of it and link to your site.
9. Bookmark your URL or one of your posts in Social Bookmarking sites. – Digg, Delicious, Furl, Propeller etc..
10. Post in relevant forums and add your blog url on your profile signature. – Search for niche forums and sign up. Make sure your forum posts are relevant to the discussions. You can find related niche forums using forum search engines like www.boardtracker and www.boardreader.com.

Tip: Have your details handy when you’re submitting in directories. I find it really helpful to have my URL, Site Title, Site Description, Email (most directories will email for confirmation), RSS Feed URL. Have this ready in a notepad to make submissions faster.

Why I Wandered on The Net

Well, that’s me. Always happen to me probably because I have such a short attention span. I usually surf the net for news, stuff to blog about, early in the morning. I don’t like eating breakfast, coffee is just fine for me and I like being online early..

So I began my day about five a.m. and been checking emails, doing some server checking, backing up. Then I moved on to any posting assignments I have for the day and do some research. I also checked all my sites for comments pending approval, replies etc. Then I moved on to some personal emails and I ended up clicking on some ads on the newsletter on my inbox.

Which led me to surfing different sites when what I’m really supposed to do was look for info about mesothelioma but I ended up searching for scripts to run a wallpaper site. Close huh? I decided to take a coffee break around eight a.m and when I got back I told myself, “No more wandering around! Stick to the task..”

So here I am on my Wordpress dashboard typing away and not actually saying much. Hehe but in case you noticed I’ve accomplished the task..

a Lazy Update..

So what’s up with me? I should have been updating this but things are getting really hectic this past week. For one its Pchum Ben Festival here in Cambodia so we had been hopping to some pagodas last weekend. Curious about Pchum Ben Festival? It’s the Cambodian festival for Commemorating the Spirits of the Dead. Much like All Soul’s Day and usually extends for 15 days for Khmers and one of the festivals that Khmers really take to heart. I’ve done a fair bit of research on that and will be posting it soon. Hmmn, living in Cambodia is certainly opening my mind to new things about Cambodian culture.

I am also in the midst of working on several different web projects. Some blogs and a full blown website so its taking a lot of my time. I’m spending about 12-14 hours in front of the PC even forgetting to eat sometimes which is simply not healthy but I console myself by thinking I don’t have to rush around looking for the best fat burner just to get rid of my scary love handles.

Tomorrow I’ll have a bit of time to relax and take some rest as the projects are almost done and its holiday here so hubby and Chinks don’t have school (meaning I could get lots of help around the house ).

Will update the soonest..

Keep Track of Your Book Collection

I love books, Hi-ace loves books and now I think our daughter has been infected too. Her favorite place to shop now is the bookstore. Not that I would want to stop her.

But because of this, we got piles of books and the bookshelves are simply bursting. When we were in the Philippines, I lost a lot of books because I couldn’t really keep track of it specially when someone borrows and it just slips my mind.

We both decided to at least organize our stuff. I’ve been doing some net research on software available to keep track of our books. Something like a personal library. I found some freewares and I’ve listed those in my other blog -  Free Book Collection Organizing Softwares. You can take a peek at it if you want to have a software to organize your book collections.

Some of them use the book’s ISBN as the book ID or reference tag and they recommend having a barcode scanner like the Symbol LS2208 for faster encoding if you really have gazillions of books. But if you’re collection is still manageable then good old manual typing will still be okay.

Others also have the feature of being able to manage your ebook collection together with your book collections. Do check it out.

Site Under Maintenance

I’m tweaking things here and there so some might be a bit odd. Please bear with me..
Note to self: Have to change the logo…!done!
Do let me know what you think of the new theme.

Blog Revamp..

Just a short aside.. A month ago I started revamping this site. I changed the theme to one where I could have rotating headers but I haven’t gotten around achieving the look and functionality I have in mind so I’m thinking of buying a premium theme I could use for this site. I have new pages coming up soon all related to travel, work from home as well as a page with links to my articles (sorta like an archive..)

My ad spot banner page (which has been hibernating for awhile) would also be up soon as well as a new downloadables page where I’ll be adding free ebooks for grabs. Mostly recipes, home tips and blogging tricks that I hope some of you would find useful.

I’m also updating my blog categories as well as tags (:D aiming for good SEO and I feel the need to organize the ‘mess’ my blog is..). I’ve decided not to put the site on maintenance mode so you’d still be able to access it but please cut me some slack if some things might look a bit weird from time to time.

Cleaning Up Before Blogging

I’ve decided to forego blogging for a couple of days after we came back from our Mondulkiri weekend trip coz I wanted to do some general cleaning. A couple of weeks back we had been renovating our drive way and all those building materials have just piled up plus I wanted to scrub everything clean of cement dust.

I have this weird liking for sorting through junk (esp. hubby’s junk ) and I could really do well running a junk shop. Anyway, hubby does a fine job collecting whatever parts, tools and junk like plastic knobs, nails etc.

If I had my way, I’d throw it all out of course but we both agreed to have a good place for them so it won’t clutter our stock room. The job was all done yesterday so now I’m back to blogging with a vengeance. I’m also hoping I could get back to my blog networking with other bloggers. I haven’t been doing much hopping and commenting due to ISP constraints.

Multiply’s Latest Theme Design Contest

Multiply has recently announced the opening of it Official Theme Design Contest. Definitely a good news for aspiring designers to showcase their skills and also get a chance to win great prizes.

• Grand Prize Winner (1): Lifetime subscription to Multiply Premium, theme will be featured at the top of the Official Multiply Theme Page and 1 year Premium subscription for 5 family members.
• Second Prize (3): 1 year free Multiply Premium, theme will be featured on the Official Multiply Theme page, and 1 year free Multiply Premium for 3 family members.
• Third Price (4): 1 year free Multiply Premium.

Multiply members are invited to submit a custom theme, then 8 finalists will be selected, then all these will be shared on the Multiply community and winners will be based on community voting.

How to Join:

1. Create a unique Multiply theme.
2. Share your theme in the Multiply Customized Themes group.
3. Send a personal message from your own user ID to themecontest and include a link to your theme posting from the customized themes group.

TimeLines:

Entries must be submitted by July 13, 2009.
Announcement of finalists will be no later than July 17, 2009.
Voting for winners will end July 24, 2009
Announcement of winners will be on July 28, 2009.

Others:
One theme submission per personn only. You should have rights to all graphic elements of the design. Must work in at least IE 6,7and 8, Firefox 3 or higher, an Safari. No altering of main header navigation is allowed.
Read more of the rules here.

Sounds like a good contest. Though the time is a bit limited. I have a multiply account though I rarely use it unless some family members bug me to take a look at some photos. Hmmm, wish I could join, but I don’t have that much time.. Anyway, for those with Über cool graphic and CSS styling skills, check out this contest.

Ruby Winkle, a Girl Searching For Sleep…

I love illustrations and I’ve been trying out making vector graphics using Inkscape, Gimp etc. The first ever character I made was “kawaii” inspired, PinkSushi. It’s been awhile since I last posted any of my doodles coz I’ve been awashed with a lot of work. Once I get a little free time again, I’d want to do some illustrations again. I’m not really good at it, yet but they do say you get better at these things with a little practice…

Anyways, I usually hop online and look at different characters for inspiration. I found one interesting new character – Ruby Winkle, a young girl who tirelessly searches for sleep. Interesting, right? I wonder why she’s looking for sleep..She has a lot of cute sidekicks too, like Garble, her teddy bear, Skats, the beatnik bat, demonstrates his freestyle form of sleep and Dink, the glowworm nightlight, offers his illuminating guidance.

Ruby Winkle is both authored and illustrated by Meghan Killeen. Check out her site..