How Trusting are You?

This question is actually posed to people who use online shopping sites to buy stuff that they want at a discounted price or getting deals to try out restaurants or hotels.

To be quite honest, I have been an avid supporter of websites that offer discounted deals like Groupon when we were still in the UAE. I would buy deals and surprise R with a sumptuous meal or at times, a blah meal.

Now that we have moved back to the mother country, I thought why not give these websites a try here. I am now subscribed to Deal Grocer, MetroDeal, CashCashPinoy and more (I just cannot let a good deal pass...).

Bright Lights in the Resto

We have dined at Greeka Kouzina from the Metrodeal website that I got and it was a great experience.

Satisfied customers

However some of my friends were not that 'lucky'. A friend of mine said that after paying off for the deal, they got the voucher a month after (this is frustrating especially since he is an OFW and usually when you see something, you want to get it. Now). Others say that there were undisclosed costs that they have to pay which was not mentioned in the deal (this I am unsure if it's the fault of the merchant or the website itself).

For shopping websites, I have only tried Lazada and they seem to be okay in terms of the product they sell and the delivery (though I had a not-so-good experience with the item we have delivered over the holiday season... worth another blog post).

With all these websites, I only get to buy stuff that are less Php 1,000 because at least in case something happens, I won't feel that bad (but of course, Php 1,000 is still big but you know you can recover from the loss :p).

What about you? What have you tried?

What's in the BLOG?

A month back, I was invited to a press launch (which I will blog about in the coming days) and met a new friend (Hi Ara!). As usual, initial talks were about personal information which we both gladly divulged. With all that behind us, Ara asked me what my blog is about. She gave different styles like lifestyle, fashion, food and more. I immediately said lifestyle because I think that is what I want my blog to focus on.

Though it's actually more of my personal thoughts/ opinions about everything that is happening to me, to us (R &I) in general.

Over the past years, what I have noticed is that the personal blog has turned into a mini-info pamphlet. The writer or writers will be blogging about various events or products either as a review or as a product launch. Yes, people still associate it with their personal stories like what do they perceive of the product or the event that took place however it seems like it's a news feature.

I guess blogging has really evolved now because online readers also get their product knowledge or information from the blog sites that they read. Example, I now know more about different hacks and ways to take over my kitchen through Fat Kid Inside's blog. For fashion and home inspiration, I check on Daphne's blog site. I read Frugal Honey or Pinas for Good's posts to give me an idea on how I can invest our money or the lessons they have learned by doing so.

If I want to read about a personal view on gadgets, food and beauty reviews, I go to Animetric's World and sift through the restaurants that she has given her seal of approval. For high style fashion and endless travel to Hongkong and Japan, I lounge at CVS' blog site for days until my travel desires waned a bit.

Oh! My recent find is Ruthilicious for her witty posts about the product she reviews or the events that she has attended. 

As for my blog, if I were to put a category to it, it's still what you call a personal blog. Yes, I do rave or rant about restaurants or services but I still incorporate a lot of my day to day activities in the blog - like how I documented our plan to go home for good up until to date - while we search for that business venture.

I will be a hypocrite if I don't admit that I do want this blog to be noticed.... soon I hope! Why? Because I also want to start earning through my blog and be an online sensation (not that one-hit wonder kind huh!).

I guess I want to also have a voice in this type of medium. I know in time, someone will notice but for now, I shall continue with what I am doing :)

Oh! Of course when my blog starts earning, that means I will have new online friends to talk to (cool!).

Pinterest - is it Pinteresting? Really?

I think I was still in Dubai when I have noticed that there is a new website that is making itself known - Pinterest. 

For the first time in my tech life, I was not excited with it... I guess for the reason that I do not know what exactly to do with it. I mean, they say it will be like your personal corkboard / visual board of the things that you see online.

photo grabbed from www.inboundio.com

I shrugged it off because I was still obsessed then with BBM and Twitter.

Now that I have time in my hands and when I did an online writing gig two months back, Pinterest is slowly creeping up again... luring me to give it a try.

Honestly, I want to but I think I have to clear out my online space first. Though it is not like the physical stuff that you can see and be irritated that you are not doing anything (yep, like the mess on your table, just as an example), my virtual space is really messed up.

I have 3 email address that caters to different stuff (yeah, Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo). I also use Pocket for my articles to read later, Zinio and Buqo to read my magazines for later, Kindle and Bluefire to read my books for later.... yes, that is how messy it is.

I was actually thinking of signing up and if it does not suit me, just forget about it later --- but I decided against it. I might just hold it up for a bit (is this me slowly turning into a non-techie person *gasp*???). Though I did a bit of research and Sheknows.com has actually provided a few insights on how some people have fallen in love with it and others got addicted to it (click here for the link on the article

Hopefully, I will organise myself virtually and make space to welcome an addition to my ever growing online apps / friends.

Picasa or Flickr?

One of the reasons of doing the "move" is because my actions are very limited in Wordpress (sorry!).

I was able to post my pictures but after sometime, my blog always gets the X mark which means, either I lost the link from the website or to be honest, I am not sure (blame Photobucket!).

Looking at other people's blogs, I have noticed that most of them uses Flickr.

I am also considering Picasa because it's already part of Google's services and seems Google has already had me sold, I thought why not use their online photo sharing as well.

Previously, I have used Photobucket but not using it for the past years (like 5 years!)... and well I forgot I have it to be honest :p

Now seems to be the best time for me to look for which platform to choose.

Decisions... decisions... will blog about it when I make up my mind :)

Later!