My Impression Of Social Spark

When I was invited to Social Spark a month or two ago, I went to check out the site. I told my friend that I will not be registering because it’s “nothing special”. In fact, the site was pretty confusing and I did not have the time to explore.

I also did not like it that we are made to socialize with other bloggers and/or advertisers and by the time I received my invitation, I could see that cliques have already been formed. I am not a social blogger so I don’t see how I could fit in. Later, I was told that a friend’s blog was rejected and I thought that to get accepted into Social Spark, we would have to submit virgin blogs. I am still undecided if I should submit any of my virgin blogs.

What I like about SocialSpark, though, is that all links are NOFOLLOW. I wish that Social Spark was already in place when I started paid blogging but it’s not possible to turn back time. What I don’t like is the in-post disclosure. I do not see the need to bring it up so obviously since my posts are usually written based on my own life, my experiences or those of my friends and people I know. So whether they do contain a link to a product, website or service or not I would still have written that post in a similar fashion.

I just registered with Social Spark and have submitted a blog for approval. I hope that it is approved so that I could use the features of the website fully. When I was registering, I felt that we had to enter irrelevant information like favorite team sports, shoe size and favorite color. I know this is supposed to help advertisers to decide whom to send products for reviews BUT coming from Malaysia, it’s not as if we get product reviews at all. This is my Social Spark profile and it is pretty empty right now but I was surprised to see that the Boss is now my friend. I think he goes around being buddies with all new members.

I hope that as time goes on, I will be more comfortable with the Social Spark and will not feel as if the site is overloaded with information and features.

*** This post was brought to you by Social Spark ***

If It Ain’t Broken

I have MS Office 2007 in one system and MS Office 2003 in another. I told the computer shop that I wanted MS Office 2003, specifically, but he did not listen and went and upgrade it to 2007 for me. BAH! Now I am confused like hell. And each time, I need to keep remembering to save my file as MS Office 2003, or else I would have problem opening it with the other version.

But that’s not all. The toolbar is damn confusing too as well. I hate all that clutter. Why must they make changes to something that we all have gotten used to using? I know that you may say that I do not accept changes and that I am fixated in the way I work but heck, who has the time to keep learning to use a program just because the developers think that the new one is better?

I personally do not think that this new version is better. In fact, I think that it’s clumsy and bulky and maybe even uses more resources than MS Office 2003. Sigh… I wished I didn’t need to use it but the Word Count in MS Word is so useful!

Summer Is Here!

Well, it is going to be here soon enough! And I guess many people will be hitting the beach, especially teenagers! I remember when I was a teenager, my mom will always tell me to remember to leave home with a bottle of sunscreen. Well, I did leave home with it but I never used it. I did not like the icky feel on my skin!

Back then, I was not lucky enough to be able to find a sunscreen product that I like enough to use. Teenagers nowadays have this new range of sunscreen product that is NOT bottles of chemicals, thanks to Screen, Inc.

These products were created by two ladies who felt the void in the sunscreen product market and that teenagers were neglected without proper sunscreen protection for them. The good news is that even the Skin Cancer Foundation has approved these products to be safe for use on skin!

I was told that this sunscreen is as natural as could be. If you have a teenager, or two, at home, you may want to get some of these!

Decorating With Wholesale Flowers

Julie, who is a part time wedding planner, told me that flowers are becoming popularly again in weddings. I guess the bridal couples want the color and freshness that only flowers could provide.

I thought that using flowers will be a waste of money because flowers cannot last that long but Julie says that the wholesale roses that she orders every time are very fresh and just delivered from the flower farms.

Check out the website of FiftyFlowers to see the kinds of flowers that you can buy at wholesale prices. Frankly, there are so many species of flowers that if I were to pick a favorite flower, I really could not decide. I’d want them all! Luckily they are not that expensive!

Number 16

So I started a new blog already and it is my blog number 16. I fear that one day, I would realise that I have more than a hundred blogs and website to in my name! GASP! Gosh! I wonder how people mange THAT??

Although I have sixteen blogs, I have yet to include my ecommerce site, personal site and one empty domain. So, yeah, taking all these into account, I would have twenty sites in my name already! I hope to stop acquiring more domain names but then when a good name suddenly pops up in my head, I would feel compelled to buy the domain name, install WordPress and START A BLOG!

Gee… many of my friends have more blogs than I do and they are not even complaining.

If CommentLuv Parses Foreign Links

As you know, I implemented CommentLuv on all my blogs. I think that this plug-in provides a great value to my blog readers and it encourages them to comment more. Did you know that there are people who would only comment on blogs that have CommentLuv implemented?

Lately, though, I noticed that more and more of these commenters have their blogs or websites in foreign languages and I have decided that if the feed parsed is of a foreign language and especially if the site does not load, I am not going to approve the comment but mark it as spam.

Equipping With Paintball Gear

My friend, Ong, loves playing paintball. One day, he asked me if I wanted to join him and I said yes but that was before he showed me the blue black spots everywhere on his body! Gosh! Paintball is painful!

According to Ong, paintball is a highly addictive game and despite his bruises, it’s a pretty safe game provided players are all equipped with safety measures like wearing paintball masks and other guards.

ZephyrPaintball.com is a well-equipped online store specializing in paintball gear. I think that if II would like to join Ong every week, I have to buy my own gear. But first, Zephyr has so many things, I am confused and don’t even know what to buy. Ong would need to help me get what I need!

Random Thoughts Off My Mind