New Hobby

I really look forward to Groupon emails. It's not just because I look forward to their deals, but because the copies are amusing. Not sure if they meant those emails to have a comic touch, but they do give me a good laugh. Some of the best intro lines I've collected (when I decided to start collecting some time back):

• For a bag promo: Bags date back to early human history when traveling troglodytes desired a more stylish way to haul their sacks of rocks to the wishing well.
• For a Mexican resto promo: Every prince knows that the most effective way to wake a sleeping beauty up is not with a boring kiss, but with a single potent drop of fiery red hot chili.
• For a Japanese resto promo: Great inventions can be exceedingly simple yet fulfilling. Sliced bread, shorts with drawstrings, lipsticks with attached night lights; and although the nationality of the ramen inventor is still being debated, its international appeal ...
• For an Italian Resto promo: Pioneering Italians were not only the first to put tomatoes in cuisine; they were also the first people to take photographs of them pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
• For a Jap-Filipino fusion resto promo: The Japanese invented chopsticks when they realized that although killing a man with your bare hands may be very cool, eating with your bare hands isn’t.
• For a gym promo: Bees communicate through both the medium of dance and the emission of pheromones, so heated arguments can lead to sensory overload.
• For a mobile bar promo: Alcohol is the first non-solid type tool; as since its inception, it has served to clean cuts and wounds, increase the burn rate of fires, and give unattractive people a higher homerun percentage during nights out.
• For a cupcake promo: Some things, such as cakes and dentist hands, are better small.
• For a massage parlor promo: Giving yourself a massage, like throwing yourself a surprise birthday party or asking for your own hand in marriage, is a surefire disappointment. 
• For a laser treatment promo: An aesthetic laser’s beam of light has the power to disband nuisances, just like a distressed cop.
• For an electronic product promo: Prior to modern day gadgetry, communication was limited to messages passed along tin cans connected by long pieces of string and mp3 players that were connected to traffic cones to amplify sound.
• For a LASIK surgery promo: Although vision is just one of five senses, it’s the one that tells us whether an approaching object is a friend carrying cupcakes or a puma who’s just ravaged a bakery.
• For a shopping promo: Shopping for clothing can be like finding a needle in a haystack: even when you think you've found what you're looking for, you've actually only found a really shiny piece of hay. 
• For a chocolatier promo: According to a recent survey, people have listed chocolate as their preferred cause of death, followed closely by "money avalanche" and "dangerously high exposure to nudity."

I'll be posting more of these when I feel like it again haha.

RIP Mega Upload

This is so sad, sad indeed. Mega Upload's gone for good. I'm in denial. What about the shows I watch? I can't watch em anymore coz everything's been taken down. NoooOO. What about the Vampire Diaries? What will happen to Damon, Stefan and Elena? :(

As the story goes:

In a joint statement, the Justice Department and FBI called the action "among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States."

Ira Rothken, an attorney for MegaUpload, said in an interview that he only learned of the actions in a press release this morning and had not yet read the entire indictment. "Our initial impression is that the allegations are without merit and MegaUpload is going to vigorously contest them," he said. "We have deep concerns over due process and assets being taken without the opportunity for a hearing."

According to the indictment, the operators of MegaUpload earned more than $175 million in illegal profits and caused an estimated $500 million in harm to copyright holders.

Read the rest of this tragedy here.

Censoring the Web

Say what? internet censorship? Apparently there's this bill that's about to be passed as law in the US. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261, gives law enforcers expanded ability to incriminate sites that stream copyrighted content. According to www.razorianfly.com:

Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as PayPal from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for 10 such infringements within six months. 

Oh no, this means sites like YouTube could be shut down/blocked! Actually, practically any website could be shut down coz sharing copyrighted content has become commonplace in practically all social media. And how about blogs? People will have to clear everything with the content owners now? I'm not from the US but lots of the sites I visit are US based. I'd be really sad if I couldn't access YouTube or Facebook anymore. For sure the net wouldn't be as fun anymore.

If it's worth anything, I think I'll be signing up for the petition against this bill. And if you happen to read this, Reader, why don't you join, too? Whether or not you're in the US, you can join the strike. Add #STOPSOPA to your tweets and sign up at:

BB Cream Again:D

Yep, despite doing such a rough sport as muay thai, I'm still a makeup addict at heart. Some things just don't change :)) I've always been excited by the sight of new BB creams in the market, though I've stopped going on shopping binges for the stuff coz I ended up having to give them away (else they'll expire in my closet).

Today, I wandered into this mall somewhere at Timog ave. I was with my mom and brother. I think the mall's name is Victoria Mall (Sounds like Victoria Court) and it's got the Robinsons logo, so yeah it's Gokongwei-owned. There was this tiny stall near the entrance. I thought it was one of those Avon stalls, but when I checked it out, all the goods were Korean brands--Missha, TFS and Skin 79. *GASP!*...SKIN 79!
Skin 79 is one of the higher-end cosmetic brands in South Korea. This was my brand when I was still studying there coz they made such high quality BB creams, and if you surf around Gmarket you can get them for up to 50% off. The Korean woman at the stall showed me the "Oriental Gold Plus BB Cream" and I didn't think twice I just said, "Ok, that one" because the packaging was so pretty. @_@ It was gold and shiny....Really, for someone who works in advertising, I'm such a sucker for good copy and nice packaging. In this case, it's just the packaging coz I couldn't understand much of the English copy written on the box hehe. For example, I don't get much out of this:

Patent ingredients of Oriental Tea Newplex and Peptatox Complex care skin to be sleek and firming by activating the original function of skin with Gold and Caviar Extracts and Oriental Sue Formula maintaining ideal condition of skin by keeping optimal skin balance and comfortably soothing skin internally and externally damaged.

But it's just so darned pretty. (Let's hope it makes me prettier, too LOL)

I know I'm supposed to do the product review research BEFORE buying, but I got too excited. I did the research after the damage to my wallet. In any case, this 40g bottle would most likely last me a year so I don't regret giving in to my impulse. It also has good reviews when I looked around. Already tried it out. Since I have an Oriental skin tone, the color fits me perfectly. It's also lightweight. I don't think I have to worry about clogged pores. Even the pink lip and cheek tint that comes with the cap is good, it glides on smoothly and is very sheer. Looks so natural on me it's like I'm wearing no make up. Ironic how I'm always on the look out for makeup that won't make me look like I'm wearing makeup.

This find made me so happy today....I almost forgot about that lump on my foot which I got from kicking someone's elbow during MT sparring the other day.