Number 5 for Hannah Grace

Feeling a bit narcissistic, I decided to Google my name. Turns out I rank number 5 for the search term "hannah grace". Woot! Considering how common my name is, I'm quite happy with that. Not that it does me any good in terms of traffic. After all, no one really uses hannah grace for their search term. Still, I'm doing my happy dance. :p

Giving My Blog Some Loving

Finally got around to changing my blog's template. Removed most stuff on the sidebar, and switched up the rest of the elements.

To my last two readers, who I happen to know just reads my blog via aggregator, do check it out!

Back to Blogging

After a couple of weeks without Sam, I realized how fun it is to look back and just track his development and stare at his pictures on my blog. Now that another baby's on the way and I seem to be getting my groove back, I think it's time to start blogging again. No promises to myself or to anyone, but I really will try to update this blog more often.

New Blood Old Blog

I wanted to start this blog about kids with special needs. The topic, being so dear to my heart, got me all confused becaue I just couldn't decide how to approach it, what to do, where to start. In short, it's been more than a year since I last updated it. However, I have decided to just go ahead and let it take shape on it's own. 

If anyone wants to help please feel free to lend your advice, skill (web design and writers), time, and even just links and clicks (I want to start getting real traffic there). As of now it's almost empty. I will be getting a real domain (paging Ate) within the week. Will be posting about again the next time there's any real significant change. In the meantime blogging about it here might help me get a bit more motivated.

Oma Marina’s Haven of Rest

That is what my mom decided to name her new blog. After months of planning to get a new blog I was finally able to convince my mom and find the time as well to set up a new blog for her. Since she knows zilch about blogging I guess I'll end up typing stuff for her. It'll be quite a problem logistically speaking since she's in LB and I'm in QC. She's pretty excited about it though so I'm excited for her too. She's really makulit and OC about what should be posted though so we'll see what happens.

I'm pretty proud of mommy because she's willing to try to learn something new. She's already planning to do a post on my grandma, Jerry, lots of post about God, her blind right eye, her newly diagnosed sickness (spondylitis something...yes it's related to Nikki's ankylosing spondylitis), and lots of other stuff. I think blogging will be good for her. She just needs to get an internet connection and for me to set the screen resolution on the PC at home really low so she'll be able to type and read.

Friendships drop by her blog and leave a comment ha para ma-encourage naman cya.... My dad keeps on teasing her and smirking but I think he's just envious yet still a little scared to try it out. Next time they come to visit I'll have a pig or motorcycle template ready for my dad to encourage him to try it out.

Here's to grown ups daring to dive into the "scary" world of the internet...

And here's to me learning how to deal with and appreciate my parents better. Hay...someday I hope to be a good daughter :p

Oh btw don't expect to find any deep dark secrets of mine there because I get to moderate EVERYTHING my mom posts!!! Hehe. I told her she can post anything about my sis but can only post nice things about me... Unfair!

Social Spark

My sister told me to try SocialSpark and I finally did this morning, while waiting for Mark to get dressed and ready for their trek/swim at Batangas. I had no idea what it was about but since it said "social" then I though it'd be a good opportunity to widen my social network online without resorting to joining/answering endless memes. So far here's what I've found out about it:

1. People there are really active - Someone already messaged me and added me as friend within a few minutes of signing up.
2. I can actually earn money through it - It looks a bit like PPP but with more emphasis on the social aspect.
3. Editing the profile page is both easy and hard - It's really easy to add and crop my pic (unlike lots of websites I've joined before!) but since I am pretty fickle at times (as Mark can attest to) I had a hard time thinking about my blog description so I'll end up with something more than "My personal blog." The good thing about it is that I ended up with something that I could at last replace the depressing sentence at the top of my blog. I don't even remember the negative words there before....a really good thing!
4. The public profile page is nice - In terms of layout it's pretty intuitive. It highlights the basic info about me yet still manages to pack in all the other features (which I need to explore) without making it look messy.
5. I need to wait for the ITK - I have absolutely no idea what it is but I'm sure I chose the code that says claim+ITK. Since it has something to do with my blog stats I'm guessing I didn't do anything wrong but just like when I signed up for Google Analytics I need to wait a bit.

So far my profile page is looking pretty lonesome. If you have a Social Spark account do add me as friend. I just hope I don't get hooked up with it as I did for a few weeks with Facebook...I need to work!

Learning from Sacha

This is all about a blog I love to read and I think is worth sharing. If you don't know Sacha Chua (and I admit I don't know much about her beyond the fact that she went to the same high school I did, she's a genius, she's cute, and speaks in this cute little voice) I think you really should get to know her through her blog. It's funny how I still think of her as this high school kid in uniform so that I feel like she has wisdom beyond her years. I guess she does have wisdom beyond her years though since people a lot older than her (like moi...) will learn a lot or at least be reminded of what they've learned before by reading her thoughts. The blog is full of the kind of practical idealism that I've been wanting to imbibe. Been wanting to write something really deep but heck I'll just link to the latest fave posts from her.

An all exclusive Sacha Chua painting (got to love her sketches!)

Relentless improvement and a focus on the positive - Will the 3/3/1 help make our marriage work better? Hmmm... Should talk this over with Mark to find out. For bosses (paging Kuya Ariel!) this is something you should check out, might work for your team. ^_^
The only way to fight the darkness is to blaze even brighter with light - This says it all.
It’s not just for you - it helps other people remember the steps, too! - Maybe I wouldn't think I suck so bad at dancing if I had a such a great dance teacher. Oh wait...I never did take dance lessons!

Joining the PPP Bandwagon

After years and years of resisting the PPP (payperpost) pull I have finally joined the bandwagon. Andrea dn my sister are the mainly the ones who've convinced me that it's profitable enough to join. I promise my dear subscribers though that I wouldn't be flooding this blog with pitchy posts. Will of course be posting more frequently though I'll refrain from posting more than once a day. For those who have been blogging long enough to have a pretty decent page rank I suggest that you also take this opportunity to earn more money. Don't worry about getting spammy. If you have a deep aversion for it you'll probably be able to strike the proper balance between earning enough money and the number of posts. Besides with a good page rank you'll get offers to post stuff for even up to $80 or more making too frequent posts unnecessary.

And guys if you catch me becoming too commercial for your taste please do tell me. Don't want my friends to stop reading my blog just to earn stuff! If you're my friend though you wouldn't mind me trying to make an extra buck. :p

Wish List

It's almost Christmas and I have my wish list up on my sidebar. ;-)

Ok so the truth is that i didn't put it up for Christmas but am experimenting with this Amazon Affiliates thing. Knowing my audience though I probably wouldn't earn even a cent (just like in Adsense). Still keeping it up because I am learning lots of things and it'll be useful for when I finally set up my pet projects. I do hope I earn from my own blogs/websites eventually. So don't be surprised if different ads and what nots keep on popping up and disappearing in this blog for the next few weeks. BTW I really do need a nicer header. Who feels like making me one? I have no talent whatsoever when it comes to anything artistic.

In the meantime though my wish list will serve to help remind my hubby about the gifts that I do want to receive. ^_^

BookishBimbo Transformation

Woohoo! Finally got around to sprucing up my own blog! Just a little more tweaking and I'm set to write more regularly as well as really start on my pet project. I do feel good right now. What do you think of the new look?

Things left to be done:

1. Add blogroll - Need to learn how to put an expandable one.
2. Update my Google Reader so that the blog's worth sharing will have new stuff in it.
3. Figure out why Technorati's acting wonky and won't post correctly.
4. Change my subheading to a more positive one.
5. Fix labels - categorize and label ALL old posts (shudder!)

Been meaning to blog about the following things:

1. Tweaking/Updating my blog - Add tags on ALL my previous posts. Add blogroll. Make the FSMA image clickable. Tag cloud.

2. A dream - I dreamed of Ian and Thea. ^_^

3. PWS Support Group - Sam's geneticist contacted me about it and we're going to have a preliminary meeting sometime this June.

4. Work - not really...it'll just be a whiny scardey (how the hell do you spell this word?) cat post

5. Finding out how broccoli was spelled

6. Sam's new yaya - She spends more time cleaning the house and doing odd jobs, which is just the way I want it.

7. Sam's upcoming birthday - No definite plans yet.

8. Pissed Off Housewife and Kris - No they are not related but they're the only bloggers I read regularly outside our circle.

9. Investing.

Support My Career

Yes my dear friends I do have a career aside from being a wife and mom. I actually didn't think of it as a career but a job but it seems to be turning into one. You see i am a writer even if I'm not. I write web content and get paid for blogging. I don't consider myself to be a writer because writers are people who put magic into words. I on the other hand, simply profit from words. This is not to say that i don't enjoy writing because I do sometimes. I especially love writing in this blog because this isn't part of work.

Anyway for the first time I am blogging in a community blog under my own name. I am writing for Froodee and take care of the Family Life section. The blog is still being developed but do stop by to support moi. Leave comments and subscribe if you want to. Aside from Froodee I maintain several blogs but am not supposed to get the credit.

For those who haven't seen this April's issue of Working Mom, try to get a peek at page 76 to see a big picture of Sam. Will be posting the very same picture there when I get home. I'm at my uncle's wake right now. Scandalized? Don't be I only got the courage to use the PC that's beside my uncle's coffin after I saw the people here using it to surf and play games. Are we weird?

It's almost morning. I'm getting weird from lack of sleep. Better stop while I still make a bit of sense if not much. Night world.

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We love you Tito Bing. You are still the corniest Tito I've ever had. We'll miss your tall tales.

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Liar Liar

I'm back and no improvements were made on this blog at all. But I realized that if I waited until I had the time to do a whole revamp this will never be back up. So just welcome me back world. I'm itching to blog and bring some drama to this world.