Look,  we know those guys in Jill and Kevin Heinz’s wedding dance video were a bit over the top but you have to see how these guys handled the last day of their journey as they proceed to divorce each other, just after 6 months!!

It’s a different cast but the divorce day must have been a blast for everyone as their friends and family can be seen swinging to Chris Brown’s “Forever“..

By the way, they are still happily married :)

Happiness is contagious – 2! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Happiness really IS contagious! And to make a difference, all we need to do is share it, ’spread it around’….

Seeing this video not only made me laugh, the affect lasted for a long time.  It also reminded me of a post I had recently read at Seth Godin about leaders who start a movement that people feel compelled to join!

He’s referring to the Guy #3 in the following video:

I have a feeling we’ll see this trend in more and more weddings :)

Happiness is Contagious is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy, Successful and Safe New Year. Hope all of your wishes come true this year and beyond.

My only wish for the year 2009 is that it be more peaceful and prosperous than 2008.

This year we had no extravagant celebrations, just watched the ball drop in Times Square (on TV).

How about you?

Do you like to stay at home on New Year’s or are you the type who absolutely has to be out of the house this day?

Happy New Year – Welcome 2009! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

As much as I try to write and move this blog forward,  new and weird issues continue to challenge me.  I’ve been sick for a week now with high fever and chills with a lot of body ache.  Not only that,  my desktop got infected with some virus and trojans which keep directing my browser to agoga.com.  What frustrates me more and more is that none of the spyware programs I have downloaded are able to clean this shit out and the pc has almost come to a halt.  It just freezes when I try running ad-aware or spybot – search and destroy.   I recently restored one of my friend’s computers because she was having the same problems and thought now that I did it once, it should be a breeze to return my own pc to some restore point but it wouldn’t work on my pc.

The restore shuts the pc and even restarts but the message comes up saying No changes have been made to your computer.  And a strange thing I noticed is that there are restore points only for the last three months, nothing before that.  I’m running Windows XP, SR2.   I also have a Dell laptop that is starting to heat up to temperatures beyond 200 degrees!   So, I haven’t been turning that one on fearing it’ll just blow up on me one of these days.

So, frustrated with the situation, I decided to start painting again (again, coz I had completely stopped painting when I started blogging).   Here are a couple unfinished oil paintings I did this week.  Of course every time I spent some time on these, the fever went up to 102°F but it definitely eased my anxiety.

This is a copy of course from a very famous French Artist 1841-1919) Renoir’s painting of a woman reading.  Here is the original

The flowers in a vase is also a famous painting but I couldn’t find who it is from.  I am copying it from a single sheet that’s been cut out from a magazine.  These are far from finished yet but something I thought of sharing.

This exercise also brought back memories of the days when we didn’t have computers to communicate with each other, or internet to do research on just about every topic.  I thought about expanding this article into a list of things you can do when there is no pc or internet available, but truthfully? I get tired of those instructional posts in just about every other blog.  On this blog, we will stick to informal conversations about things to do when there is no internet or when your pc doesn’t work. And of course if you know how to get rid of that ugly agoga.com thingy, please please let me know.

I’m writing this from my brother’s laptop as my pc continues to freeze with every click,  so I may not be able to reply to your comments right away but would love to read them.

Reminder:  The 161th edition of carnival of healing will be posted this upcoming Saturday (Oct. 25th).  So if you want to submit your post to be published, please send it it before Friday (Oct 24th).

When the going gets tough, tough feels like quitting is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

This question has been on my mind for a few days.

I went to a restaurant the other day with a few of my colleagues from work.  It was lunch time and this restaurant offers buffet for lunch. We have gone to this place many times before but recently there seems to be a new management and new crew.

At buffets, as you know, everyone gets their own servings and we all did.  The waiter came and filled our glasses with water but then after his first appearance, the waiter couldn’t be seen anywhere the entire time.  At one point we ran out of water and the food being very spicy and hot, we really needed it, the only thing that was not on the buffet table otherwise we would have gotten the refills ourselves.  This particular restaurant is quite famous in my town and gets filled beyond capacity during lunch so I understand that the staff usually gets busy (with what? I’m not sure) and cannot attend every customer individually.

The hot and spicy food was getting to us and in the absence of water,  we decided we were not going to tip them. (blame it on dehydration).

We finished our meal somehow and after paying at the front desk, headed to our cars while talking about how once this place used to be a very nice but the service was going downhill lately.   All of a sudden we heard someone calling us from behind: “Miss… excuse me ma’am..”  All four of us turned around and found that one of the waiters was walking towards us, with a smirk on his face.   Not understanding what his problem was, we stood there waiting to hear what was his problem. The guy walked up to us and told us that we had forgotten to pay him the tip.

Huh?  We were stunned and furious at his audacity.  How could he follow us in the parking lot asking for money?   All he did was fill our glasses with water one time at the beginning.   We wondered what that smirk was for… did he really think we were going to feel embarrassed and end up paying the tips in the parking lot?   Not to mention how suspiciously stupid the scene would have looked to someone – each of us handing over some money to a strange guy!

This is the first time in my life I’ve come across such behavior. No waiter in the world should be chasing customers in the parking lots to demand tips! We of course refused politely and said we didn’t think a gratuity was warranted as no service was provided, the guy insisted a couple of times but we just walked away!  Phew!   What has the world come to?

As ridiculous as it sounds, we recently also started noticing that this place has started to include the tip in the check when it’s first given to you so if you do not notice it, and end up giving 15% to 20% on top of that, it’s your fault and they will gladly take the money, knowing fully well that you didn’t notice the tip had already been added.  Not to mention, some restaurants charge you tip on the take-outs too!

So, here are my questions:

Do you always pay tips even when they don’t provide any service?

I mostly do but this one time we collectively decided not to and the waiter came after us!

How would you have handled this?  If you are not from United States, I’d love to know the custom and expectations in your country.

photo: Digital Plus Art & Photo

To Tip or Not to Tip the Nutty Waiter? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

One of my good friends Chee Wee Ng from Betshopboy completes a great milestone of blogging for one full year tomorrow and is celebrating first blog anniversary this month.  He has lined up some great gifts to give away to his readers.

I realize I should have announced it on my blog a bit earlier as he had weekly drawings and even early bird draw where if you entered early and secured 20 points, your points would be doubled but still there is one grand prize draw that will be on August 31.. The prizes for this coming week and the rules are listed below but first, check out Chee Wee’s video about his contest..

Prizes for 24 August draw

1st prize – 4GB Sandisk Micro Cruzer skin flash drive
2nd & 3rd – a 125×125 ad book for 7 days (from 25 – 31 Aug) with PerformancingAds on my sidebar

Prizes for Grand draw on 31 August (one winner)

A 2GB Creative Zen MP3 player with 2.5? TFT LCD for videos & audios & SD card expansion slot. Click for specification.

A 125×125 ad book for entire month of September 2008 with PerformancingAds on my sidebar

Early Bird Bonus
The first 25 submissions with minimum of 20 points each will have their total points doubled!

So here is the deal, if you want to win one of the prizes, then here is what you need to do to gain those points:

* Registration and 1 point –> Subscribe to our RSS Feed via email (mandatory) and comment below that you are registered to win. You can use the subscribe option in the sidebar or at the end of this post.

* 1 point: Stumble or Stumble Review this contest

* 2 points –> Follow me on Twitter and Twitt about this contest with link to this contest page.

* 5 points –> Make a *New* blog post on a publicly accessible blog (cannot be on a password protected page such as myspace or facebook) and link to this page and the homepage. Additional 5 points given if you embed the above video(found in this post) in your post.

Earn Bonus Points
15 points –> Make a *New* blog post (separate from above post) and embed anyone of my videos found in below posts with a short writeup and link to the respective posts. That’s 15 points for each new post with a video.

Video post #1: Singapore Toys & Comic Convention 2008

Video post #2: A Prelude To F1 Grand Prix

Rules:

* This contest is all in good fun and is open to anywhere that snail mail goes.

* Participating blogs must be 90 days old and consist of at least 10 posts.

* Comment must contain link to twitter posts and blog posts, Twitter id and StumbleUpon id, so they can be verified.

* Winner must have an active subscription to Betshopboy.net when selected.

* Winners of ad spot must supply your own 125×125 image, which will run during the period stated above.

* Winners will be selected by random draw and will be contacted by email and you have 7 days to response. If there’s no response, a new winner will be drawn

* Contest ends on August 30th at 11.59pm (GMT +8).

* The organizer (that’s me!) reserve the right to reject any entries from websites that are generally offensive or pornographic, and any websites that can be classified as spam.

* The organizer (me again) reserves the right, at my sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this contest, e.g., depending on the participation rate, additional prizes and/or early bird bonus may be thrown in if my subscription target is hit.

Submit your entries early to qualify for the weekly draws and to double your points for the first 25 submissions with minimum 20 points!

Congratulations Chee Wee

First Anniversary Giveaway Contest – Betshopboy is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Your

Doctor?

Pharmacist?

Hair Dresser

Attorney?

Maid?

Friend?

OR

Mother-In-Law?

(trusting “myself” is not a choice) ;)

Update:  If you came here earlier after seeing this post in your feed reader, I apologize… the format kept getting all messed up for some reason and I had to delete the post!   I’ve been writing posts from either Windows Live Writer or BlogDesk and am so not used to the dashboard of this new version!

photo: OiMax

Who do you trust more? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

How would you do that?

Okay, here’s the constraint, try to describe yourself in just 2 or 3 words. Don’t think about your whole life because that gets confusing. Just concentrate on your state of mind at this very moment, NOW, and see what you come up with.

And of course let us know in the comments what you thought of, or else we’ll never know :-)

Above is a picture of Michael’s daughter from Flickr. I do not know Michael but when I came across this picture on Flickr while browsing, I instantly added him as a ‘contact’. Michael’s entire collection is great and there are tons of inspirational shots in his sets but this one touched me the most because of his explanation below this picture. It took me back to my childhood.

And I instantly felt sad, happy and calm at the same time.

I was sad because every time I think of my dad, I yearn to see him, talk to him and sometimes I listen to his messages on my cell phone voice mail.

I felt happy that he gave me a very enriched childhood, loved us all very dearly and supported us in everything we ever wanted to do.

I felt calm knowing that my mom is doing better. I was talking to a friend the other day who works in a public utilities company. She gets to hear from a lot of the clients on a daily basis about their problems. It was sad to know that so many of the older folk ( the ones in their late 70s or early 80s even) suffer because their water and/or electricity was shut off because they hadn’t been able to pay their bills. It’s really sad but that gave me a weird sense of calmness about my mother ‘coz things could have been much worse than they really are.

If you were to describe yourself in few words, is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

For a change, I was sent this video by someone today and it sure changed my mood so thought of sharing it with you guys for smiles.  

Also look for a guest post in a couple of days here.  Enjoy!

Britain’s Got Talent – Michael Jackson is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I’m happy to say that Awards, Accolades has become a series in itself..  Check out Awards I and Awards II to see what I mean. 

I can’t begin to thank all the wonderful people I have met ever since I started blogging.  These fellow bloggers who have become good friends make my life better each and every day.   So, once again, I thank these shining stars, who have become part of my life, from the bottom of my heart.

You have heard me talk about the most generous soul,  Mig, who not only comes up with the original posts (like 10 reasons why she loves pearl), but also continues to bestow me with numerous beautiful awards and accolades. 

And what can I say?   Sue from Sueblimely and Kuanyin from Blog Pond and Colin from Free PC Security made me blush by calling me their Blogging Mentor, the award created by Sue.

How can I thank these beautiful people making my world ever so exciting?  Kim the beautiful artist from Laketrees designed another award this year called Significant Blogger Award and it was an honor to receive it from her.

Kim has also spent considerable time coming up with Top 101 Artists’ Blogs which is worth checking out. 

Colin also awarded Best Friends award which is very nice of him.  Colin maintains numerous blogs with a lot of useful information and is always ready to help out anyone in need.  I am proud that he is my friend.   thanks buddy.. (Did I pick up all the awards from you Colin?  I know you’ve been showering me with a lot of them lately lol)

When you get mentioned and recognized by others,  it makes blogging experience even more exciting and makes you want to continue, despite all the struggles that come with blogging.  I started reading Steven Snell’s blog, Vandelay Design, a few months ago and really loved it.   I was surprised when Steven asked to feature me on his new blog, Traffikd, a blog about Social Media and Internet Marketing. Check out this blog for all you want to know about Social Media or Internet Marketing.

Steven was also very kind in including me for his list of 8 Bloggers That Won’t Bite, on PureBlogging.  

What more could I ask?  I am blessed meeting so many supportive and kind friends and I wish the best for all of you. 

Awards, Accolades III is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Wishing all my readers, fellow bloggers and friends on all of the networking sites, a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

If you have befriended me on one of the social media networks and we haven’t had a chance to exchange a hello, please feel free to say a hi in the comments and I’ll definitely visit and comment your blog.  

Remember,  Valentine’s Day is for spreading love.  You comment here and get a link with CommentLuv

Spread Love with Your Comments is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Can you read these right the first time?

The bandage was wound around the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it, English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital, ship by truck and send cargo by ship, have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn't Buick rhyme with quick?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this:

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is UP.

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or toward the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. We use something to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers, and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

We could go on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP; so: Time to shut UP!

Oh… one more thing: What are the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? U-P

PS: BTW I found this message in my inbox this morning and it gave me a chuckle, thought I'd share it with you. hope it brought smiles to you too..

Did you think English was an easy language? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

photo by mysza831

So I finally upgraded to WordPress 2.3.2 this weekend but now all of my comments are going to the moderation queue. I have checked the Discussion Options and do not have the option “an administrator must always approve the comment” box checked!

What could be going on?

Getting Stuck in the Moderation Queue is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I haven't had the right state of mind to do my most popular or my favorite posts of 2007  from my blog and from other blogs,  although I am sure I have them linked in various bookmarking sites but I do want to thank all of my readers for sticking up with me and supporting this blog by subscribing to the RSS , commenting and emailing me this week with their supportive messages.  

I also want to apologize to all of the friends who have been asking for digg /stumble or Mixx their articles or whose emails I couldn't respond to,  I promise to do better in the coming weeks and months. 

In keeping up with my goals for 2008,  I am looking for ideas to add some quality content to this blog, so if you have suggestions, please let me know.   One of the things I did a couple of times in the past and a lot of the bloggers do is the Interesting weekly links,  which I will be starting again.   So, please check often to find some great reads that I'll be sharing from around the web.

There will be a Mega Group Writing Project in the month of January on Social Media Sites, hosted by multiple bloggers, lead by Vivien of InspirationBit.   Check out InspirationBit for bloggers hosting your favorite social media site group writing project and be sure to get your entries in. 

And if there is still something left that hasn't been grabbed and you would like to participate in hosting,  there might still be time to get in,  just ask Vivien.  I will be hosting the project on Mixx, Netscape (which is now Propeller) as well as Squidoo,  so get thinking about writing your articles on these sites.  I will write what you need to do in another post soon. 

So, here is wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy, Successful and Prosperous New Year. 

Wishing You a Happy 2008 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I am amazed at the level of encouragement I get from all of you guys. And it is humbling to receive tremendous support from you all via emails, MyBlogLog messages, SU messages and IMs! Some of you have gone beyond my wildest imagination in bestowing upon me your love and support and for that I am grateful! So, without further ado, here is a list of awards I’ve received in the past few weeks… (I’m sure I forgot some and technorati reactions aren’t always accurate so if you remember giving me an award, please email me or let me know in the comments and I’ll update this post).

I was completely surprised by Bes’s mention from Reader Appreciation Project that I was one of the recipients of Readers First award! Although, honestly, I do not even remember when I wrote to him.. but then thats the beauty of interacting with your readers… you never know who is reading your blog! My heartfelt thanks to RAProject authors: Simonne, Ronald and of course Bes!

Kim is a great Award winning artist herself and runs Poeartica, a blog full of beautiful paintings and Laketrees where she creates quite a buzz with all of her contests where people have chances to win her esteemed paintings and portraits! I thank Kim for awarding me with Southern Cross Award

Other recipients included:

Lisa Mikey Jan Morriconei Hidyn Gems Kitty Deborah MaryAnn Anna Boyd Renny Pearl Colin Ev Santa Diane Sue Blog Elf Lynda Mihaela Captain Life cruiser Fruity Franco Nihal

Oh here is another award called

Blogging Star Award from KIM @ Laketrees

Other recipients included:

Bluepanjeet Renny and
Diane purplefrog

Thank you Kim!

Sir Colin from The free PC Security also awarded me the Community Blogger Award as well as Shibumi!
“The Community Blog Award celebrates people who reach out and makes the blogger community a better one. It also underlines the importance of a blogs readership community, one of the most rewarding parts about blogging. It’s the people that come back to comment, adding to the conversation, making you feel like someone is listening and interested.”

Shibumi – “Subtle and unobtrusive beauty” award for blogging elegance!

“Shibumi is a Japanese term which used in the following context is a noun. Its meaning refers to a ‘particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty” which can be applied to almost anything.”

The “shibumi” award was originally created by Hawk who maintains a nice blog!

Thank you so much Colin!

Nice Matters Award from totally useless! Its been long, but I promised I wouldn’t forget you!

With so many awards going back and forth, and more and more people getting involved in this, Colin ended up creating his own thank you award for his buddies called Best Blogging Buddies and presented it to all of the following!

Lisa , Kim, Deborah, Pearl, Sandy, Jesse, Chris, Santa, Blog Elf, Jackie, Marzie, Adrian, Jos, NAFA SG, Polli, Sue, Kathy Maartje, Morgan, Greg, MaryAnn, Eric, Hawk, Carol, Diane, Ev Nucci, Surjit, Kuanyin, Christy Z, Sandee, Robin, Hanna, Maunie, Kim, Bobby, Billy, David, Jennifer, Aryst, Winston, Christy, LilyRuth, Jess, Rudy, Lili, Sandy G, Ange, BlackWyrm, Vincent, Colin & Anne, Blandly Urbane, Marco, Mihaela Lica, Aziz-sm, Lansy, Alex Badalic, Victors, Nostalgia Manila, Franco Yong, Herby, Rubie, Santaram & BVK, Jean-david, Namgay, Catherine, Yunita P, PJ Lighthouse, Lorimer Black, Dream Catcher,Fred Plimley, Anja Merret, Maria Lourdes, Jon B, Denise, Dharmendra P, Brent D, Jerry & Daryl McCoy, Brian B, Calvin Innes, Pieter Marburn, Jessica Field, Taflas, Alex Sysoef, Norie, Justin Stanley, Ashish, David Ledoux, Thanate Tan, Kevin, Etienne, Gerbera, Christina, Abhishek d, Uprai, Texas_Jam, Azmiel, Daniel, Kristin B, Luwis, Adavait, Now Sourcing, Buen Amigo, Kiran Pande, Peterson Wong, Lynn, Chessnoid, Luis Hipolito, Joliveira, Jennifer & Pete, Team Dog, Megan, Mark, Raivyn, Mel, Andrea, Jen / domestika, Mimi, Bobo, Lynda Lehmann, Dread Bob, Julie, RennyBA, Bobbarama, Becky, Magdalena,

Phew! That was some list of links ;) thank you Sir Colin!

If these awards were not enough! Santa considered me worthy of a Santa Certified Award

Needless to say I am feeling ecstatic!  This post was long overdue and I’m glad I finally got to it!   The awards came at such a fast pace, I couldn’t bring myself to blog about them :-)

You should know that I am immensely touched by your support and wish you all a very very Happy Thanksgiving and much joy! 

I would also like to take a second to thank ALL of my readers and commentors.  Without you, I wouldn’t have been able to continue!  So, thank you so very much!

I am also thankful to all of my readers who I haven’t ‘met‘ on their blog or here! If you haven’t commented yet, come out from behind the screen and say a hello sometime.

For previous posts on awards check Awards and Accolades I

And stay tuned for a couple of nice posts that I have been working on! I am sure they’ll make you think and you’ll like them.

Tags: Awards, Blogging Community

Awards, Accolades II is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Happy Halloween is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Sunday was a nice day at fresh perspectives, weather wise and other wise, for a few good surprises! For one, Google was kind and assigned this blog a page rank of 4 and gave me a feeling of ‘official belonging’ to the blogosphere. What more? it came on my birthday (yes, not blog birthday, my birthday ;) so that was a nice surprise!

Now SportSayer would probably have to add one more page rank display button for blogs that got the PR for the first time because ‘has been’ or any other from his selection may not quite fit in this situation! May be a ‘lucked out’ button?

A real nice long vacation on birthday would also have been great idea and as a matter of fact I feel it should be mandatory to stay out of work for a few days on or around your birthday. What do you think?

Which brings me to this question:

If money or time were not an issue, and you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Where would you like to go? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Which one sounds better? I think “pearl the tool-girl” has a better ring to it, wouldn’t you say?

For those who don’t know what I am talking about, Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor is a very famous character (played by Tim Allen) of an American sitcom called Home Improvement. Tim is married to Jill and they have three sons, Brad, Randy and Mark. Tim spends most of his time in his garage working with a large collection of tools and is always trying to ‘fix’ the appliances in the house to make them more powerful and of course in the process causes a whole lot of goof ups! One of the funniest shows ever….. and here is a clip that runs about 10 minutes but is worth every one of it!

Okay I was kidding about tool girl being better than the tool man, he is definitely very funny and way better actor than I could ever be! You know what reminded me of Home Improvement? I recently got my home’s hardwood floors replaced with the marble and my garage is quite a mess right now!! As I was browsing for some ideas to organize this mess, home improvement show related information kept popping up with every search! Talk about getting distracted, I ended up watching a couple of episodes. And here is a site about garage organization I really like and thought I’d share with you. These guys sell all kinds of things like cabinets, workbenches, tool boxes and a whole range of stuff to get your garage into a top notch room in your house! I especially feel like buying their Metal Pegboard to hang the tools… Check them out, you’ll be surprised how many storage ideas they have!

Tim the tool-man or Pearl the tool-girl is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

This post is inspired by the girl who is not only intelligent but also very passionate about different humanitarian causes that she believes in!

Pelf’s dedication to whatever she believes in, shows in the way she throws herself completely into achieving her goals, may it be saving the environment or breast cancer awareness or stopping the child abuse!

Most of us blogged with making just one post about The Blog Action Day but Pelf? She started a month long campaign at The Giving Hands where she brought many issues to forefront blogging about them the entire month.

Pelf’s blog is definitely contagious and is aptly named!

Pelf showed her desktop one day and asked everyone else to show theirs! And I have to say that I never really thought mushrooms were that gorgeous before seeing one on her desktop! very unique…

So here is mine…;)

My desktop background usually alternates between my avatar and Aurora Borealis. I LOVE the concept of Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) and am even more in love with the colors it forms! Most times I am able to find a good shot that I feel I may not get bored with and use it but if I want to change it and cannot find anything that I instantly like, I go back to my avatar.. crazy? yeah I know :-)

The way this meme is going around, you are supposed to tag 5 people, but I soo do not like to follow rules and restrictions! So I am not going to tag anyone, but would love to see what yours looks like.

So then, what is on your desktop?

My desktop is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Over $54,000 CASH give away in prizes!!   Is that insane or what?  Some people make that much in a year!  Yes, that’s true,  some people do!   And you know where that Grand Celebration is taking place right?  well, where else?   its our beloved problogger’s 3rd birthday celebration, where Darren is giving away prizes worth thousands of dollars for entering in Problogger Birthday Bash Competitions.   I am keeping my fingers crossed for winning something nice – yeah, I do need an ergonomic chair and a MAC – :) 

Well, that’s being a bit too greedy, isn’t it?   but then who knows?   Until you participate, you won’t know!   Remember that $4000 give away contest?  I won a Bonus Prize of a site wide text link with the contest blogger!  Contest Blogger is the best place for exposure and I can’t wait to be there….

Wait, I just found out something I had never known!   These two blogs are so different and are run by the same person?   No wonder both blogs are loved by whoever comes across them… I found romance tracker during one of Darren’s top 5 writing projects  where he wrote how to find the person of your dreams :)  I vaguely remember that I had commented on his post but now see that he doesn’t allow comments! 

What a memory I have, don’t you think?  :) 

I am just very excited to have my link displayed at Phil’s blog!   Thanks once again David!

So,  head on over to ProBlogger to celebrate and enjoy!

Prizes Galore is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

So what does the term Google mean?   I always wondered about it subconsciously but never took the time to find out…… and today their logo encircled in colorful candy made me  ’curious‘

The name ‘Google’ is a play on the word ‘googol,’ coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. A ‘googol’ refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by 100 zeros. It’s a very large number. In fact, there isn’t a googol of anything in the universe — not stars, not dust particles, not atoms. Google’s use of the term reflects our mission to organize the world’s immense (seemingly infinite) amount of information and make it universally accessible and useful.

From Google itself

“When is Google’s birthday?

Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake. For more on Google’s history:
http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html ”

Now when do they celebrate a company’s birthday?  Is it the date the domain was registered, or the company’s incorporation date? 

See some more information on Search Engine Land. 

While you are at it,  check out some cool logos from Google’s past birthdays and more…

They say there are no guarantees in life, but boy,  we expect so much from Google and after typing in a word of two,  we sure take it for granted to give exactly what we ask for – and for the most part, it does! 

Google is 9 years old today is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

photo courtesy: MarkPogue

Just who came to your mind? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

 25 years ago today,   on September 19th, 1982,  Scott Fahlman,  a professor from Carnegie Melon University,  invented the sideways smiley face :-)  which is sometimes also called Emoticon!  So,

Happy 25th Anniversary to the ubiquitous Smiley that we have come to love so much…

As is usually expected, there have been several disputes about Mr. Fahlman, Research Professor at Carnegie University being the first to discover the smiley emoticon, and I just found his response to a thread that he posted just about a couple of hours ago on one of the Google news article – oh yes, did you know you can comment on any Google news article now? 

Although the graphical yellow smiley face  was invented by

Harvey Ball  in 1964

Can the new generations even believe how life would have been without the colon-hyphen- parenthesis combination ? :-)

Some people have told me I use too many smileys in my conversations, well, yes, I do…  :-)  It makes the conversation a bit light hearted, doesn’t it? 

Do you use smileys in your emails?  or you refrain from using too many, but do use a few?   or you are the kind who has come to hate so many of these emoticons?   I’d love to know how you use them, and if you don’t then why don’t you use them? 

Smile :-) It’s your anniversary! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

There is a fun little test on Technosailor that I found via Quick Online Tips that analyzes which web celebrity you associate yourself most with based on your answers to some dozen short multiple choice questions.

Well, the very first question asks if you have a blackberry, I don’t own one, and I would be really shocked if Chris doesn’t have one either :) Who cares about the accuracy of these tests? I am happy with the results :)

The Technosailor Self Importance Test

You are most like Chris Pirillo!

You are most like Chris Pirillo. You dominate your brand and do quite well in marketing it. However, you go out of the way to place the focus on other people as much as possible as a decision on power and authority. You may have many followers, readers or fans but you rarely let this distract you from your mission and focus.

Who do you think your personality is like?

Take the test here and let us know in the comments below….

I am most like Chris Pirillo? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

David Airey, an Irish designer who aims to create the best logos, is holding 1 year blog anniversary prize giveaway. There’s more than $4,000 worth in free prizes! Find out how to enter by reading the details on David’s logo design blog.

The deadline for entries is Wednesday, September 26th 2007, and David will announce the winners on his blog on Monday, October 1st 2007. Names will be drawn using a random generator.

There are 3 main prizes and loads and loads of other prizes apart from the the gold, silver and bronze awards… like consultations, reviews, magnetization techniques, blog growth ideas, coaching , books, deep links, cash awards and many more awards offered by some of the bloggers we read every day and have come to love. I definitely need help with this blog and would appreciate a chance at winning a redesign and a logo!! Here are the two main prizes:

Gold award

The ultimate business blog package:

• Professional logo from David Airey. Add a touch of professionalism to your business with one of my logo designs.
• Custom WordPress theme design from Nate Whitehill of Nate Whitehill dot Com. It’s vital to set yourself apart from the crowd, and Nate will help a great deal with your very own custom WordPress theme.
• Personal marketing / advertising plan from Maki of Dosh Dosh. Maki is an expert where blog advertising is concerned, and he is kindly donating his time to help you make the most of your new custom blog.
• One year’s hosting and blog setup from John Boardley of I Love Typography. John has kindly donated his time and will do everything you need to get your new custom blog hosted on one of Media Temple’s dedicated servers.
• Signed copy of Blogging Tips by Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on WordPress. I bought this book myself, and it contains excellent blogging tips for beginners to pros.

Silver award

• A second logo design from Tara Roskell of Graphic Design Blog. You only need to visit Graphic Design Blog to realise that Tara really knows a lot about great design.
• Website critique from Randa Clay of Randa Clay Design. If you want some expert advice on how to improve your website design, you won’t be disappointed by this offering.
• One hour SEO consultation with Lyndon Antcliff of Cornwall SEO. Lyndon will conduct a Skype consultation with the winner of this prize, and he comes highly recommended for search engine optimisation and linkbaiting.
• $60 of books from Amazon courtesy of Darren Rowse of ProBlogger. Is there a book you’ve been meaning to buy on Amazon? How about getting it free? A great donation from a professional blogger.

Check out rest of the prizes at David’s blog and you’ll sure not want to miss out the opportunity. I had joined David’s MyBlogLog community a few months ago when I first started blogging and had also subscribed to the blog. David’s positive attitude is evident from various ways he has always helped his readers via useful articles and tons of interesting information, and giving back to his readers in one way or another is not new to his style… I recently read an interview he did with Ilker on being the 4000th commenter on his blog.

The most fascinating thing about this award give away is that the best and accomplished bloggers are coming together to help out the rest of the community in their endeavors to blog better and succeed,  and that shows that we have the power to make a difference.

Technorati Tags: Contests

Hottest contest I have ever come across – $4000 give away is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I was just reading Chris Garrette's blog and saw he used this tool to find how addicted he is to blogging, and of course my addiction has gone beyond his, only time will tell whats gonna happen to me or my blog!!

78%

How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² – Dating Site

How addicted are you to blogging?

How addicted to blogging are you? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Look at his shrug!!!  

He doesn’t look too happy and looks like he doesn’t give a damn either :)   

This guy made me laugh today when I tried logging into my bloglines account! 

Would you hire this man as your plumber? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Do you have that lightheartedness to your personality or take everything very seriously? I have a lot of friends who say that they are set in their ways, take just about everything very seriously! Why do we have to be set in our ways? What ways?

I spent the weekend at the beach and noticed that some people were there physically but not in mind. At least so it seemed! And that was really sad. A woman and a man along with their three small children were parked right next to us and the couple could not relax even for a few minutes. Kids wanted to play close to the water but the couple were busy talking as if about some serious stuff and would not allow the kids to go have fun! So the children kept whining! What I couldn’t fathom was the fact that the weather was beautiful, the sound of the waves and seagulls made the ambiance so beautiful, one could easily get lost in it for hours, but these two could not put the discussion to rest for sometime and just enjoy the moment.

So I wondered! What is it that happens to human beings as they get older? Why do we lose that childishness? and When do we lose it? That playfulness, spontaneity, unstoppable giggles that we used to have when we were younger? Why do we lose that enthusiasm as we age?

I am sure there are a million answers to all of these questions I have. I only know one simple answer to all of these. And that is, that we need to do anything and everything to keep that child alive in ourselves. Children’s minds are continuously learning and growing because children do not have egos. Kids are curious about everything around them. They are adaptable and they laugh easily and genuinely. We need to shed our egos (at least sometimes) that get offended so easily and allow ourselves to be like little children who are completely unaware of time and place.

Immersing ourselves in playful laughter and not taking everything so seriously that we lose part of our spirit and become dull and lifeless, is the only way to live a happy and fulfilled life! After all, life is short and cannot be taken for granted, can it?

Technorati Tags: fun, life

Are you the serious type or playful? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I won this Art Work at Laketrees Contest today!  Kim is the award winning portrait artist living in Australia! 

Kim over at Laketrees held a small contest that ran for four days and this is what she announced

I am giving away a framed print of one of these artworks to the reader who can guess the subject of my latest drawing……
I will be posting the drawing in 4 sections next week and the first reader who can put the sections together and guess what the subject of the work is will receive a free framed print…(postage included to anywhere in the world)

I had completely forgotten about the contest and not seeing Kim over here for a few days,  went to her blog to see what she was up to and noticed today was the last day of contest!  and I quickly started putting pieces of the puzzle together…:) 

I cannot wait to see the painting!  

… The drawing is mixed media on Arches paper approximately 1 meter square…without frame….

Thank you Kim.. this was a lot of fun!

Kim is planning to hold many more competitions in the near future so do not forget to check out her blog….. 

Creative Contests Are Much More Fun is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I know I've got to finish my About page but I've been thinking of this post for sometime and haven't had the time to write it and I really want to bring your attention to a brilliantly funny site that I was introduced to by Chee Kui of Dirty Little Secrets the other day! Take a look at this beautiful image

This blog is a mix of funny and informative stuff and it does exactly what it says – rocks your world with really mad tips and tricks while keeping you entertained for hours. Michelle, the author of the blog has a unique writing style. I would recommend you definitely read her post The Three Little Blogs, a Cautionary Tale that reflects how talented she is! I guarantee you will have a good laugh and end up loving the article and her site! I also want to mention that Michelle is running a contest called Cow Patty Bingo [that ends tonight @ midnight ;)] and after midnight tonight, she plans to have a strip poker party. :-) The randomly drawn winner will be given $50, and will enjoy a permanent spot of recognition on her Contest page. Isn't that a great deal? Now that I have had that off my chest, I am ready to follow Darren's 31 days to Building a Better Blog Challenge! Darren being in Australia, has already posted his second day's blogging tip and I haven't even done the first one…:) I hope to follow along with the month long project with problogger. I am sure it will be difficult but lets all try and make our blogs better. So tonight after making this post, I will be going through this blog's emails and see if I can personally thank some of my readers. I think I always contact people who come to the site here, if I know their emails, but if there is someone who hasn't heard from me, rest assured I will be contacting you. So, two things, go to Bloggrrl's website, read that marvelous article, and then head over to Problogger and get some more blog juice!

UPDATE:

Michelle reports that for this contest she received 109 entries …. So, out of those, my post entry got picked as one of the five runners up!! That ain't bad now is it? Considering I entered the contest at the last minute? ;)

Tags: contest, group writing project

Bloggrrl Plays Strip Poker at Midnight Tonight is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

WOW…

Allow me to share with you guys a bit of fun I had this morning… I visited Adnan’s site via my feed, blogtrepreneur and found he has a post up wishing Ray from FreshBlogger a warm Happy Birthday! and had a small contest going on where he asked people to guess Ray’s age. And the first person guessing Ray’s age was going to win a text link (FREE) in blogtrepreneur’s side bar for a MONTH… YES… and voila… How difficult it can be?

I went on Ray’s About page and there, he has his age listed … and off I go to shoot a comment on Adnan’s site… only to come back after lunch to see that I have WON…

The hilarious thing is that even when in my comment I wrote where I saw Ray’s age, the person who commented just below mine has a different number … and the one below him has another number ….DUH… lol I mean how can you not read a little into what the conversation is and what someone else said before you? Do you read what other people are talking about in the same conversation? Or you just write whatever comes to your mind?

This is a very good news for me because Blogtrpreneur is a PR5 Blog and this might be the last week before Google updates their Page Ranks and I do need that link … Thank you so much Adnan!

Anyways, many many happy returns of the day Ray!!

Why don’t you go over to the freshblogger and wish Ray a happy birthday too!!

A Very Happy Birthday Ray!! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Today I want to share a little something very interesting I found on the web. Below is a picture of a new site called Sk*rt

Yes, Sk*rt. Look up Sk*rt on the net and you’ll find there is already quite a buzz about it!

Sk*rt is a new Digg for women! But of course, men can go there too if they want to get into women’s heads(according to the site). But you’ll mostly find stuff that interests women. Fashion and Parenting are showing as the biggest tags in their tag cloud, as you can see below. I’m sure parenting, entertainment, food and other issues will be of interest to a lot of the men too. I don’t particularly care for segregation of women and women, but I have to confess that Digg can become a bit intimidating for some of us.

This new site became pretty popular in just a few seconds of launch which was I believe a few days ago and they made the first page of Digg, according to their blog!

Now the Good stuff:

They are offering $500 worth of prize loot for simply posting this botton with a link back!

The Prize packages are sponsored by some hip companies owned and run bu women too, according to the site blog!

And you could win:

•Two four-color silkscreen prints from Jaime Zollars Studio. Limited-edition prints. Signed and dated.

• A vintage print “cupcake” apron and “green blossom” tablecloth from Funktion Home.

• A 10th anniversary edition of The New Intercourses, an aphrodisiac cookbook. In hardcover, of course.

• A honeycomb truckette bag and a retrolite darlydove pendant on a sterling-plated chain from Darlybird.

• A large rectangle serving platter and 6 interchangeable minis from Nora Fleming.

• A custom birth necklace from Little Jules — the perfect baby gift for you or a friend.

And the winner will be picked at random and announced on July 16th, 2007.

All you have to do is link back to their site and display one of their badges!!

sk*rt – a new Digg for Women is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Did you have anyone go to those lengths (err heights) for you ever???

Picture worth a thousand words is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I would like to try an idea – I would like to start a Friday Fun column called something like “Can You Top This?” In this I am thinking of posting jokes or humorous stuff and ask my readers (you) to post a ‘BETTER’ joke, or incident, funnier punch line or something that is funnier than the one I have posted in comments or sending me via email at tyropearl at gmail dot come. And you will win fame and riches. Well, not really, but we could definitely have some fun.

So lets begin.

The best ‘dear john’ letter ever
A Marine stationed in Afghanistan recently received a “Dear John” letter from his girlfriend back home. It read as follows:

Dear Ricky,
I can no longer continue our relationship. The distance between us is just too great. I must admit that I have cheated on you twice, since you’ve been gone, and it’s not fair to either of us. I’m sorry. Please return the picture of me that I sent to you.
Love, Becky

The Marine, with hurt feelings, asked his fellow Marines for any snapshots they could spare of their girlfriends, sisters, ex-girlfriends, aunts, cousins etc. In addition to the picture of Becky, Ricky included all the other pictures of the pretty girls he had collected from his buddies.

There were 57 photos in that envelope….along with this note:

Dear Becky,
I’m so sorry, but I can’t quite remember who you are. Please take your picture from the pile, and send the rest back to me.
Take Care, Ricky

Weekend Fun is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.