Sandier Pastures

I found a great wordpress plugin info at Leanne’s blog that allows you to respond to comments in the comment section and send an email notification to the comment author at the same time. Nothing can be cooler than this!

Since I strongly believe in the writer-reader interaction, this plugin is very helpful. My reply to a certain comment will not only be limited to comment author alone but also to the others as well. Great idea especially when answering to questions in comments.

Download and activate the comment-email-responder plugin now and see the magic! 

No matter how many times you’ve moved in the past, relocation can still be a tough thing to handle. A happy, trouble-fee moving can start with choosing the right movers to work with. 411moving.com is an online portal that helps people moving out connect with licensed and professional network of moving companies. Do a simple search on their website to find local, international and interstate movers.

Check out 411moving.com now to get things started early. You can also get free quotes to compare to get the best deal.

This week’s theme: Original

Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture, Japan Snow Festival: Original design of things made out of SNOW.

In my husband’s home town, snow piles up to 3 meters (click the link..the pictures are taken from M’s hometown during the start of winter) even in early spring. The people in his town organized the annual snow festival to attract tourists to the always barren, white winter wonderland and utilize all the snow to good use.

A philanthropist awards you $50,000 with the stipulation that you may use half of it for yourself and the other half you must use for the benefit of others. By “benefit of others” it can mean anything really, buying a gift for a family member or donating to a charity.

I got tagged by Kailani for some daydreaming session.

1. How do you spend the money on yourself? First, let me convert that money in yen…I’d pay off the debt we incurred for relocation. It’s just very minimal but want to get it off my system fast! Then I’d spend $1,000 for shopping new clothes and shoes.

2. How do you use the money for others? Please be detailed, so if you say “give X dollars to charity, let us know what charity and why you select that one. I would renovate our house in the Philippines so that it will be big enough for future family reunions.

3. If you were to spend part of your money to have a performer do a show for you, who would it be and why? I would invite the Moscow Circus and invite all the children in the neighborhood to watch it for free.

4. If you were to use it on a new vehicle for yourself, what kind? I would buy an Audi Q7 or a Honda CRV.

5. If you spent part of it to go to a “fantasy” camp, what type would you choose? A thousand and one nights set in Arabia would be interesting.

6. If you were to use it to buy season tickets for a sports team, what team would it be? I will buy tickets for the Dubai Open Tennis Tournament and see the live action right before my eyes!

7. If you were to use it to go on a cruise (assuming you like cruises) where would you cruise to? A cruise in the Caribbean will make me happy!

8. If you were to use it to go to NYC to see a show (or shows) what would you see? I would go to see Mama Mia. My daughter and I are ABBA fans and we missed the show in London last year. (We were refused because she was too young)

9. Totally off subject (but since Fall is coming) what is your favorite carnival food (I was watching “Big” while writing this and saw them at the carnival)? It would be the classic popcorn or sweet cinnamon churros, the one in Tokyo Disneyland.

Pop! Daydreaming finished, back to the real world.

Let me know how you’ll spend your fortune: Florence, Charlotte, Shiera, Rose, Idel and Rico.

Moving things, whether locally or internationally can cause a lot of stress: which boxes to use, which things to pack up first, what to do with the breakables, and most importantly, to decide whether to do it by myself or ask the help of any moving company.

I have moved at least 6 times in the past 10 years and know very well the hassles that goes with moving.  I’d say throw away your worries and ask the pro. Check out local, interstate and international movers in your area by visiting topmovingcompanies.com.

Thursday Thirteen banner courtesy of Samulli

13 SIGNS THAT SAYS YOU ARE LIVING IN 2007

1. You accidentally enter your password in the microwave.

2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You email the person who works at the desk next to you.

4. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have email addresses.

5. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

6. Leaving the house without your cell phone which you didn’t have in the first 20 or 30 years of your life, is now a cause of panic and you turn around to go and get it.

7. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.

8. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

10. You start tilting your head sideways to smile.

11. You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.

12. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

13. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn’t a #9 on this list!

9. You call people you meet online through mommy blogs as your “friends” even if you haven’t met them.

There’s no denying that these days, the most effective way to build your business and get it recognized is to go online. It makes a lot of sense - every successful business right now has a website. Transactions online can reach customers living halfway across the world from your business hub. It all looks so easy but it’s actually easier if you have a shopping cart software to setup and manage things for you.

AShop Commerce helps you create your own online store easily even if you don’t have the technical knowledge. You don’t even need to install it in your local computer because it is a hosted shopping cart software which means all shopping carts are hosted in their web servers, monitored round the clock and backed up regularly.

This product offers a 10 day free trial which is very convenient because the best and only way to know if certain things, particularly computer softwares, suits you or not is to use it yourself and see it in action.

Check out why Ashop Commerce continues to create a buzz as an award winning shopping cart software by visiting their site and enjoy the trial to start promoting your products and services now.

In the hope of solving traffic in the growing city of Dubai, the government spends 74 billion dirhams to construct the first railway system in the country. An estimated 9,000 men (mostly laborers from India) are helping to construct the Dubai Metro Project at various locations throughout the city. 

Image of the cars to be used in Dubai Metro. The trains are imported from Japan.

The Dubai Metro will be a driverless, fully automated metro network under construction in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai. It is aimed to be one of the most advanced urban rail systems in the world and will be the catalyst for tourism, financial and economic growth.

Computer generated image of one of the train stations

Image of the elevated train

Image of Dubai Metro in Sheikh Zayed Road

The Metro is scheduled to partially open by September 2009 and be fully completed by 2012. But knowing Dubai’s famed reputation in construction completion (endless delays!), I’d say that the deadline to partially open on September 2009 is too optimistic.

So far, here’s what’s stemming out of the desert right now:

As the very popular saying goes, “it will be beautiful when it’s all finished“. Meanwhile, residents are getting wrinkly and older by the minute with traffic stress, diversion road confusion and  relentless construction noise.

Did you know that the Middle East stretches as far west as the Western Sahara in Africa? What is the smallest country in the Middle East? 

I love geography. Memorizing all the countries with their respective capitals was my favorite past time even before I entered high school. Then I escalated into memorizing the flags, the currencies, then the nicknames of each of the states in the US. I clearly had all the free time in the world. It was fun, at least for me. A great challenge I can always take even now.

I found this on Sabine’s blog and of course, I wasn’t able to resist, especially that I am living in this region. I’d say I scored well! If only big old Russia didn’t blow up into pieces of tiny nations, my score would have been perfect on the first try.

Go on, take the challenge! Don’t forget to come back and tell me how you did!

At long last after 8 months of waiting, someone (some family) is moving into our house in Japan! It has been in the real estate company ads screaming “For Rent” but no one has taken the risk of moving in and having to clean 7 rooms!

Small Japanese families, usually with only one or two kids then no maids to hire so having plenty of rooms in the house would be actually be a burden than a comfort - - can’t blame them.

We had been paying mortgage for that house since January and it’s a great relief to have someone rent it, someone to pay off the house loan for us. Yay!