Life in MegaPixels

I was talking to a friend in the states and she’s been thinking of sending her mom a surprise on her birthday two weeks from now.  Since she is too far away from home, it would be impossible for her to actually buy a gift and send it by freight.

I suggested Island Rose, a florist in the Philippines, to do the job for her. Not only do they deliver high quality long stemmed roses, they actually have the best variety of flowers and arrangements that I’m sure mom will love. The best part is, roses will arrive at mom’s doorstep in bud stage so when she takes it out of the box, she can enjoy the flowers as they bloom. Very ingenious indeed!

Island Rose is the only reliable Philippine Flower Delivery Service that delivers roses of the highest quality, that will not put you to shame. Indeed, it is a gift every girlfriend or mom would like to receive on special occassions. So what are you waiting for, point your browsers to Island Rose now!

Aside from my addiction to shoes and bags (like any girl out there!), I am a big sunglasses monster. I’m particularly biased to Oakleys because they frame my face pretty well. Recently, while window shopping at Greenbelt 4 and 5, I got to try on designer sunglasses that got me really interested in getting myself a new one.

I searched online for a variety of styles and have narrowed down my search to 10 out of 20 styles, oakleys included. I’m thinking, I will probably get another brand. Since I already have Oakleys and D&Gs, I’ll probably settle for a pair of Nine West Sunglasses. I’m thinking among the ones I’ve chosen, the Nine West line really makes the cut.

I’m particularly interested in the huge chunky ones that go with the huge bags. I recently got myself a new bronze bag that I’m dying to find a pair for.  Another criteria I have for choosing the perfect sunglasses is the type of lens – I easily get dizzy with the unpolarized ones, without the UV filters so this is a big no-no for me. I also go for the cooler tint of brown or gray, more that the dark tinted ones. I am nearsighted and couldn’t see well in the dark, so I light tint helps to make sure I can still see the road when driving with my sunglasses on.  When shopping for clothes and accessories, I particularly go for the clean, minimalist designs that look elegant – from bags, to shoes down to the sunglasses, with the Reiko Aoki’s and Dooney and Bourke bags as an exception.

Continuing my search, I also found really nice Kate Spade Sunglasses. Now I’m so torn between the two. The Kate Spades are a little bit more pricey than the Nine Wests, however, the designs are classic and really lasts a long time.

So I’m thinking… should I go for the KS or the NWs? Which one should I get? Will you help me choose?

My nephew is celebrating his birthday on Saturday. Although the kids are very far from me, I make it a point to get in touch with them over the phone and send them presents on special occasions. For weeks now, I have been contemplating on a nice gift for him – a basketball, a pair of rubbershoes, or a nice Nascar Apparel perhaps?

He is a big sports fan, from basketball, car racing, tennis, name it! He’s also pretty much into gaming, just like any growing kid. He loves his PS2 more than anything, and is also now hooked on network gaming! I’m thinking of getting him one of those Carl Edwards Merchandise like a new handheld game or maybe a steering wheel he could hook up to his PC to play Nascar racing!

I remember back when I was a kid, I always wanted to have a tent. I saw a pretty nice Tony Stewart Merchandise that looks pretty neat for the great outdoors! I hope he would like one of these. I guess I better make up my mind soon!

I finally had the chance to do some blog hopping tonight and I was particularly amused at one article I read in the magazine that talked about sexy nannies. It was obviously coming from a guy but I found it really funny in a kind of pervy way, but funny all the same.

Anyway, he and his wife both work long hours and have to leave their 2 year old son with a nanny for most of the day. They’ve had very bad experience with the previous nannies who left the kid in the condo hallways to answer a text message, or leave the house open to walk the kid around the pool area. Just put it this way – they’ve had it with nannies.

Then one day, a friend introduced them to a nanny who was not only experienced in caring for a kid, she was also somewhat sexy. After talking it out, the couple finally decided to take her in. With some little doubt, they did some research and come across the Nanny Camera. It was the perfect solution for their woes – they can actually keep an eye on how sexy nanny will treat little baby boy.

While mommy is 100% in favor of getting this pricey nanny camera masquerading as a teddy bear or a wall clock, daddy is more than excited.  Of course, like any responsible parent would – they’d do everything to ensure the safety of their kid in the company of the nanny, so it was not a very difficult decision to make for both parents. But then, in a weird kind of way, he made me chortle a giggle at what he wrote. Can you believe it, he actually wanted to get the nanny camera for reasons other than keeping an eye on baby boy – he actually found it pleasurable to watch nanny in action. Talk about some guy’s screwed fantasies!

Boy if I was the nanny, I would totally feel violated being watched while I’m innocently doing my chores, it’s just insane! But I can’t blame parents as well. If I had my own kid, I’d probably have one of these installed at home. In this day and age, when technology is so accessible, this would probably be one of those things that I’d consider non-negotiable. I would feel secure in knowing that my kid is well taken cared of while I’m away working.

How would you like to have one of these nanny cameras?

I was looking for private, residential homes for short term rent when I chanced upon this house in Malibu. It has beautifully well appointed rooms, a heated lap pool, pocket gardens, fireplace, plasma TV. Everything that anyone would wish to have in a home. The house sits on a cliff which explain the serenity that it has to offer people who wish to go on vacation from the busy world outside.

Looking at the photos, at first I thought it was some residential rest house of the Hollywood rich and famous. But boy, was I totally wrong! It is a drug rehab facility that caters to individuals who seek addiction treatment and alcohol treatment. The ambience of the place is perfectly created to help support the recovery of patients undergoing therapy inside this home.

With a secluded community, Cliffside Malibu limits its enrollment and extends a wide array of services to its patients, from acupuncturists, herbologists, massage therapists and holistic medicine practitioners. The vast expanse of the property also offers exciting outdoor activities to its inhabitants – horseback riding, surfing and hiking.

So as not to feel as though they are shut out of the real world,  wireless internet access is available in the community. The whole treatment process is very casual and comfortable, with unmatched state of the art approaches to help combat addiction.

Though I am not an addict, I would definitely love to go on a retreat in this place, if only to clear my mind and to renew my spirit.

If there’s one thing we can’t deny – women in general are obsessed with shoes and bags. This is our guilty pleasure. I am particularly obsessed with small fashionable designer handbags and wristlets.

With my discovery of ShopWiki, I have also rediscovered online shopping to be a wonderful stress-free experience. With just a flick of my finger, I am able to shop and compare prices between two stores and make up my mind on the purchase. It’s so convenient that I can get the bag I want without having to wrestle my way through parking, through store crowds and lastly through the whole ordeal of being sales-talked into getting something I will later on regret having purchased.

I find particular usability of the accessories search that allows me to find the accessories I’m looking to buy and the ability to actually sort them according to price range. With shopwiki, I no longer stick with only 1 store for my shopping. In fact, I get to search all online stores in the web and compare prices.

So with that, I’m off to buy my new Coach wristlet. Later folks!

I was in Rustan’s for my regular session at Clarins, a consult with Junee of Phyto for my hair-perming, and to shop for a wedding gift for my cousin, when the huge signage at the 3rd floor greeted me in bold, red letters, S-A-L-E!

I saw racks upon racks of clothing and shoes on sale, but my gaze landed on the swimwear which are now on off-season sale.  There was quite a handful of designs that I fancy, but none that was similar to what I found online which I believe will really work for my build – Swimsuits for All.  Aside from the fact that the store sells creatively designed women’s bathing suits they also cater to women of all sizes.

One of the things I like about the swimsuits being sold on this site is that they’re functional and elegant at the same time. It’s very difficult to find these things in swimsuits nowadays. The ones that I see in malls around here are either too skimpy or too sporty.

I know marrying both form and functionality is quite difficult, especially when it comes to bathing suits, but this online gem pulled it off quite effortlessly. I am particularly interested in getting the christina swimwear brand and I am seriously considering ordering one for myself on this site. Now all I have to do is make up my mind on which design I really like best! 

I received a very disturbing email from Mungkey today. It was a forwarded email campaign to support a blog called two million dollar baby that says:

This is just disturbing people, and I do hope you would mind and read this journal. The people involved in this journal are planning to abort a baby, their baby– unless you answer their poll: they reasoned that they could support the child, so they might choose to abort the  baby.  They called the child the twomilliondollarbaby, which is not very amusing.

Please reserve your 10 seconds of internet time and tell others about this story. An unborn baby’s life is in jeopardy. Rally everyone to save a life.

I cannot help but share my opinion publicly on this matter.  My initial reaction was more of genuine compassion and pity. I feel for the troubled teenagers. I feel for the child in her womb. I can almost feel her knees wobbling out of fear and anxiety.  It is not a very easy situation to be in and definitely one that you and I would not like to experience at any point in our lives.

However, setting up a blog to entrust the fate of an unborn fetus to public scrutiny is a totally different matter. It posed for me a question on morality: while the act of saving a life through whatever means possible is a noble and respectable deed, is it morally correct to risk a child’s life for a price tag? For the compassionate souls who were moved by this story, is it morally correct to help save a life while contributing to a certain degree of extortion?

I tried to process all these information in my head, and believe me, it tugged at my heart to realize how awfully selfish and insanely inhuman this act of treachery and connivance could be.  While I am amused at how far the couple would go to raise money for the kid’s future,  I feel saddened and angered by the fact that they are actually using a poor innocent life to blackmail and abuse the genuinely generous hearts of other people reading their blog, in their pursuit for financial freedom from raising a kid, that is a consequence of their irresponsible actions.  Clearly, this is extortion masquerading as a cause at all angles.

As much as I would like to commend the couple for their creatively, I feel guilty that I am part of the world today that is shaping the future tomorrow.  If kids today have judgment that is as flawed and twisted as these couples’, what else can we expect from our future?

Indeed, this situation poses a serious threat to morality. And so I dare leave you with this question -  where have our values gone?

I am not really a big fan of online shopping with my credit card, although I do buy domain names, softwares and tech stuff online. I know how the whole transaction works and all, but perhaps it is the trauma that I had when I was handling countless fraudulent transaction issues back in my Verisign days. However, I am trying to get over that trauma, but using all the auction sites is just so painstakingly tedious!

So I went to do some search for Strivectin SD, a topical cream that, according to reviews, renews skin irregularities! I found a nifty online site that actually does the online window shopping for me. ShopWiki is a revolutionary new tool that actually does the dirty job done.

Like a search engine, it crawls through the web, in search of the perfect store with the perfect match for what you have been looking for.  Very interesting concept indeed, and one that is very well thought out, Shopwiki even allows you to compare prices from one store to the other without having to switch between windows! At lastly, it gets the job done so fast, even faster than making up my mind on what to purchase.

I had trouble sleeping tonight – blame it on the coffee, the energy from hiphop abs and the conversation with a colleague on YM. So I did some blog hopping and landed Mungkey’s multiply site.

I was amused by his post on what his name meant so I tried it on mine… and here goes the result.

What Rhea Ong Yiu Means

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You’re always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can’t handle you. You’re very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you’re likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you… especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You’re a strong person. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are usually the best at everything … you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic “Type A” personality. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are deeply philosophical and thoughtful. You tend to analyze every aspect of your life. You are intuitive, brilliant, and quite introverted. You value your time alone. Often times, you are grumpy with other people. You don’t appreciate them trying to interfere in your affairs. You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. You may miss out by not settling down, but you’re too busy having fun to care. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It’s easy to get you excited… which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don’t stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are a very lucky person. Things just always seem to go your way. And because you’re so lucky, you don’t really have a lot of worries. You just hope for the best in life. You’re sometimes a little guilty of being greedy. Spread your luck around a little to people who need it.