If you like wearing, using, or making (and yup, making money off) one-of-a-kind items, check out Etsy, the place to buy and sell all things handmade. I just came from a one-hour ogling spree and if I’m not $10-or-so shipping dollars away, I would’ve gotten my hands on the following items:

I enjoyed making this collage too! All items are from Etsy.

These pretty creations actually inspired me to seriously look through and attempt* to make something from the old clothes and curtains in my parents’ attic before the moths beat me to them.

*attempt being the operative word. Wish me luck!

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Have you tried out Pandora yet? I discovered it via my friend Earnest ‘s blog and believe me, it’s had me at “page loaded”. Really! It’s dooper fun, you enter a song title or artist and their engine will generate a playlist of tracks with interesting musical similarities to what you entered. As it says on the site, it’s just like having your very own DJ (minus the ego too, right Nest? ;)).

So anyway I entered “Cibo Matto” and was recommended songs by Moloko (close enough), Supreme Beings of Leisure (I have their fist album and I think their sound is more Morcheeba-ish actually) and surprise, Deep Forest?? Well of course a script can’t be 100% accurate. I also entered “Ivy” and discovered the excellent Ultraviolet by Anubian Lights. Do let me know what gems you find.

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It’s 2006, have you made the switch? If you do so right now, apart from the reasons listed here, I promise that this blog will look prettier on your screen too. 🙂

How swiftly time flies! It’s once again that time of year when the lot of us are busy making “best of” or new year’s resolution lists. As a matter of fact, my Arn and I have this ritual of enumerating highlights of each month by year’s end. (It’s fun, you should try it!).

Anyway. Instead of listing the said highlights here (as if naman you’d be interested to hear about our kitty‘s vaccination last May and other events of the sort), I thought I’d just point you to the definitive 2005 list of lists by the net’s big guys.

#6 in DVDTalk’s Top 10 DVD Packaging in 2005. I love Peanuts – the cartoon and the snack d: )

I think I spent over three hours this morning trying to click every link (and their succeeding sublinks) in the abovementioned list and so far, I’ve learned that “Podcast” is the word of the year, that Russell Crowe is surprisingly chatty and not surly at all in his first-ever DVD commentary, that 13 scientific theories do not make sense, that Jack Nicholson isn’t so scary in The Shining *must click*, and that I may be guilty of at least one web design mistake, yikes.

Do share what you’ve learned from it too. 🙂

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Change the World for a Fiver: Tippi gave me this beautifully-crafted-and-designed, very inspiring book for Christmas.

This year, I was inspired by a gift from a good friend to take my list of new year’s resolutions to a global context by signing up for We Are What We Do‘s action tracker. As of today, I have completed 26 of the 50 suggested actions and I do hope to accomplish more by around this time next year.

Action #1: Decline plastic bags whenever possible.

What you can do to help won’t cost anything at all: smile and smile back, hug someone, have more meals together… effort-free, right? I hope that by posting the link here on my blog, I’ve somehow inspired you to do a little something to change the world too. 🙂

Arn and I chanced upon this poster on our way to Katz Deli (when we were in NYC last summer) and I remember us thinking “HOW???”
Apparently, to see is to believe. Two nights ago Charles Ross (who happens to be the one man in One Man Star Wars Trilogy) guested on Conan and performed a condensed edition of his skit which was surprisingly quite entertaining. Well… exhausting, but entertaining. Thanks to Google, I can show you a clip.
By the way, beside the link is a clip to his other show, One Man Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Since he seems to be re-enacting trilogies, maybe we can foretell what he’ll do next? Let’s see… The Superman Trilogy (lets just forget that there exists a 4 and 5)? How about The Karate Kid Trilogy? (I won’t be surprised when some Pinoy copies the idea and does The Mano Po Trilogy… ano pa ba? There’s no other trilogy locally diba?)

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And speaking of NYC… did you know that The New York Times is now available on our shores via The Manila Bulletin?

“This collaboration with the Manila Bulletin is an opportunity to provide The New York Times’s brand of journalism to one of the Philippines’ leading newspapers,” said Cristian Edwards, president, News Services Division, The New York Times. “We are pleased to offer the high-quality journalism of The New York Times to an expanding audience in Asia.”

It comes out every Saturday and is helmed by none other than our kitty-loving friend and Wedding Essentials chief copy ed Charlene Fernandez, o ha! Please stop by her blog and congratulate her (:

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Is it just our connection or has PLDTDSL been acting up lately? It seems that the server is down every 30 minutes or so (especially in the evenings). Since Arn and I work from home, it’s extremely annoying especially when we’re about to send a layout to client only to find that we can’t. It connects but the pages don’t load.

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Can you believe that Christmas is just 7 days away? In case I don’t get to blog again and greet you all before then, I took the liberty of uploading a Christmas song in two wonderful versions: Version 1 for the Vilmanians and version 2 for the Noranians. (If they won’t load, try clicking here.)

Whose version do you think is better? You be the judge (:

*Much thanks to our good pal and Mac expertise-and-comic relief supplier Carlo for sending us the files!

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Congratulations to one of my longtime blogmates* Nic and his lovely Anna who tied the knot in Boracay just a few days ago!

*Yes we met in 2001 when there were only about 10 Pinoy blogs in existence, ours included.