Best Blogger Template Resources

I've been quite a happy Blogger user for quite sometime now and when other people convince me to switch because other blog platforms have better templates, I beg to differ. There are thousands of blogger templates available online, I should know because I've spent countless hours scouring through them. I have now finalized a trusty list of the best resources I know for Blogger templates. I chose them because they are updated quite frequently and they have pretty exceptional designs. Enjoy!

AllBlogTools.com

Aside from good templates, this site also offers a lot of blogger tricks and tools that you can try out.

Blogger Styles

This is the site I frequent most often because they are almost always new templates every week, plus they are all rated from bronze to gold. Each template has a live view plus an assessment of features.

Blogger Templates Blog

This site is devoted solely for a templates gallery and it has quite a lot, so expect to be losing a few hours on this one.

Blogger Templates Free

This site has a nice interface with a nicely sized thumbnail of each template, you can find unique templates here that are not found on any other site.

Deluxe Templates

Although they have a very limited selection of templates, each one is handpicked to be of quality. If you’re going to visit this site, I suggest you take a peak also at their Blogger tutorial page.

Theme Craft

This is the template gallery made by the original team from Falcon Hive. Although it’s a relatively new site, their very contemporary designs is currently generating a very good following.

Technorati Tags: blogger templates,template resources,blog templates,unique blogger templates

Guess who's featured!

I got a text last 25th from my friend Vincent Haoson of Back2Gaming.com telling me that my Pinay Gamer Page was already up. I was ecstatic about it, unfortunately I was already enroute to Quezon province and I didn't get the chance to see it until I got back.

Aren't you curious about my page? Go on and check it out HERE. I'd love some comments. Seeing that page definitely made my day.

Technorati Tags: pinay gamers,games

Timeless Style

Whenever I'm asked to design a house interior in the grandeur, classical or traditional style, a Grandfather or Grandmother clock is almost always a staple accent piece. Statement decorative pieces like howard miller clocks not only provide a good focal point in the room, it also gives it additional character.

It's interesting to note that clocks have a very fascinating history. While proving to be a very good read, for interiors to have that stately feel, high-end clients still choose Howard Miller Grandfather clocks. For the younger generation though and for modern-themed interiors, I have found a great contemporary clock on the 1-800-4clocks.com gallery.

The Howard Miller Tempo Grandfather Clock, goes beyond the traditional lines and design of most conventional grandfather clocks. In fact, it exhibits a whole new look altogether. The design will be great for an interior in the ultramodern style. I highly recommend it for bachelor pads or a modern loft.

These days, it's great that grandfather clocks in your home doesn't mean that it has to have a traditional theme, you can still have a stately piece which can go well with your modern taste.

Technorati Tags: clocks,grandfather clocks,howard miller clocks

My favorite Chic Flick moments

I've had chic flick movie marathons countless of times before during lazy Sunday afternoons, when I've got nothing else better to do or I just have them playing in the background while blogging. I've picked some of my favorites with the memorable quotes/moments in the movie that make them quite unforgettable.

The House Bunny

“Instead of the Maji-maji, can I just have the one maji because I’m not that hungry.”

“The eyes are the nipples of the face.”

The Hot Chick

  “Had sex with any leprechauns lately?”

“Taquito! Stop a-po! We’re supposed to be amigos!”

My Best Friend’s Wedding  Michael O'Neill: Kimmy says if you love someone you say it, you say it right then, out loud. Otherwise the moment just...
Julianne Potter: Passes you by...

 Sex and the City Movie

“..and then there’s that one dress..”

The Women

The What do I want vision board

P.S. I love you

Karaoke night

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How about you? Have you got any to share? Leave me a comment below and I’ll make sure to check it out.

Technorati Tags: movie quotes,chic flicks

GG4B7SYPSWU9

Merry Christmas!

Sending out my warmest holiday greetings to all my readers. I’m off for a short trip out of town. I hope to get more blogposts out this christmas break. Watch out for new sections and more interesting content!

XOXO

Sneak Peek into the Ugly Betty Set

While watching Ugly Betty, a show of which I’m extremely a fan of, one can’t help but notice the spectacularly designed sets and vividly colored interiors. When I saw it featured on the Interior Design Magazine site, I just had to blog about it.
See what I mean? Beautiful aren’t they? If you want to see more pictures, click here.

Technorati Tags: set of Ugly betty,Ugly Betty set,Set design

Christmas Vectors

Here are some resources I've compiled with proper credits of course. These are great for doing custom e-cards or if you want to deck out your personal sites in holiday cheer. Enjoy.

from right to left:

Row 1 – from Crazy Leaf Design Blog

Christmas Vector frames

Christmas Pack

High Quality Vector Pack

Row 2

Vector Christmas from Free Vector Downloads

Vector Gifts from Hurry Up Yao Yuan

Christmas Gifts from Crazy Leaf Design Blog

Technorati Tags: vectors,christmas graphics,graphics,vector graphics

Bye bye, Ramen Girl

It was a shock to read about Brittany Murphy's death all over the news this morning. She died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Hollywood. Although the death appeared to be of natural causes, the exact reason will be known after her autopsy sometime this week.

My first reaction when I heard about this was that she was so young to die too soon. I love her movies and she was great at Clueless. I especially liked her for her Ramen Girl performance. So yeah, to quote Ashton Kutcher's tweet...

"2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine.."

Bye bye Ramen Girl.

Technorati Tags: brittany murphy,ramen girl

Red Ribbon's Chocolate Walnut Fudge

The other cake that was launched during the Red Ribbon event I attended recently was The Chocolate Walnut Fudge cake. Upon learning that this cake was made entirely of Hershey's Dark Chocolate and already my taste buds can't wait to taste it. Looking at the cake made me think of a city skyline, maybe it was because of the chocolate twirls with varying heights decorating the cake.

Chocolate Walnut Fudge with Hershey's Dark Chocolate is Red Ribbon's newest addition to its Premium Selection line. It is made of a layer of creamy chocolate mousse on a bed of moist fudgy brownie, both loaded with chopped walnuts and finished with dark chocolate ganache, sprinkles and long chocolate curls all made with Hershey's Dark Chocolate to make it even more irresistible.

Each bite of the cake is mouth filling with dark chocolate goodness and each soft bite is balanced out by crunchy walnuts. This cake is a must try this holiday season and it's only available at a very limited time.

The new Chocolate Walnut Fudge with Hershey's Dark Chocolate is available in all Red Ribbon stores and select booths at Php680.00.

 

Technorati Tags: Red Ribbon,dark chocolate,cakes

Globe Gloo + friends = mashup fun

Yes it's not a typo for glue, Globe has recently launched an online scrapbook collaboration site called "GLOO". As soon as I heard that it was like a digital scrapbook, it immediately peaked my interest. Gloo is recommended to be used with Globe Broadband for faster collaboration and lesser lagtimes.

First up, you'd have to create an account and wait for the confirmation email for your account to be activated. Make sure to check your spam folder for this. If you've entered a mobile number, Globe will send you a pin code via SMS for validation. After you've activated your account, you can edit your profile by uploading your avatar and then proceed on creating a space.

You can create multiple spaces with varying themes as much as you want. You are first presented with a blank canvas with a toolbar on the left and a wood panel background. You can now decorate your space with pictures (this is done by hotlinking from image hosting sites), text, videos and sticky notes. You can resize these (except for the video), by clicking on the edge of the photo and using the cursor tools to click and drag. This can be a little tricky though but it's easy to get the hang of it. You can bring things on the foreground and background by using the picture tools. However, it's more fun to make a scrapbook by inviting your friends.

my playground screenshot

As long as you and your friend are both online, you can both upload and drag/drop items on the active space. This is where the fun begins. I had fun tweaking my page and my friend's, Vincent Haoson of Back2Gaming.com, while I was trying it out. You can see the items and typed texts appear on the space in real time. Cool huh? There's a load of other possibilities on how you can use Gloo for online collaboration, you can hold online brainstorming sessions with your team, event planning, shouting board for your barkada and even an interactive bulletin board of themed presentations. The uses are endless. Inquire about Gloo and see for yourself.

Technorati Tags: online scrapbook,collaboration,gloo,globe,globe broadband

Riding the Formspring craze

 

This latest trending tool, blazed across Plurk the other day and I gave in to my curiosity and created an account. It's fun answering questions from friends and anonymous ones too. It's a great way to kill time when I'm taking a break.

Some think though, that this will backfire as in the case of my friend. He received mostly hate questions that even I frowned at the vulgarity of some. But I guess this just provides an insight of how people view you. For some this is like a cold splash of water  on your face.

So far, the questions thrown at me were nice. (I hope it stays that way!) If you've got a formspring account, drop me one.

Technorati Tags: questions,formspring

My Gadget Wishlist

Christmas is due to arrive in exactly 7 days and I can't help but be a kid again and send my wishlist for Santa. Hahaha One is never too old to make wishes. Here are some gadgets that I've been eyeing on for quite sometime now and I've recently ticked one off it (hooray!), here's to me getting to clear this list soon.

24" Samsung LCD PC Monitor

Yeah I've still got my trusty AOC 22" LCD Monitor at home but if I had this....oooh bigger screen...just wow! It also has built-in speakers, so that's a plus to freeing my tabletop space. I can imagine doing 3d's in a monitor that big, I would be simply just be paying more and more attention to the tiniest of details. I can't even begin to imagine about playing with a monitor that big.

PS3 Slim
Still a staple on this list. *sigh* I'd have to buy a good LCD TV first before I can buy you. I want my PS3 slim to be customized of course. To see how I wanted it look, please check back on my old post. I'm missing out on all the good games!!! I wish I can tick this off my list soon.

Kindle DX

I've got a ton of e-books, backed up in a dozen or so cds. For now, I'm making do with my sister's old Palm to read some ebooks before going to bed and sometimes I also use   my PSP. But it would be nicer to get a gadget really dedicated to reading e-books. This one is just the right size for me, it's bigger than the other commercially available e-book readers out on the market but I'd want to be able to read on my bed without my glasses on. Plus this one has got bigger storage space and that's very important for me.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of this phone. It features an Android 1.6 OS and a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. I've always loved SE's camera's and this phone has an 8MP camera built into it, which is way more advanced than most smartphone's out there. It also has an 8G (expandable up to 16G) microSD memory and 1G internal memory. You can view the phone's full specs here. It has been announced that it will be released 1st quarter of 2010 and I can't wait!

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Santa if you're out there...I've been a really good girl this year. ^_^

Technorati Tags: gadgets,wishlist,xperia x10,ps3 slim,e-book reader,kindle dx,samsung,samsung LCD monitor

Find another you: Coke's Facial Profiler

Have you ever wondered if there's someone in the world who looks exactly like you? Well, now you can find out. Just for fun, Coca Cola has released a Facebook integrated application called the Facial Profiler. So here I am trying it out.

First up, you would need a Facebook account to access this app. Sign in to your account and grant access to the application. The profiler works by looking through thousands of FB profiles and looking up someone who best looks like you.

Next step is to upload your picture. You can do this by posing for your webcam or getting a picture file from your desktop archives. Then just follow the instructions as indicated in the window. Make sure to choose a photo where you are looking directly in front and it also has to be clear. Grainy photos don't always guarantee a match.

Just a little loading screen while they're processing my photo and scouring through lots of profiles.

First attempt. Hmmmm, she doesn't look like me, see? Match only at 54%.

Second attempt. Waaay off. Hahaha

Third attempt. Ok at 79%, it's still far from me.

You can then choose to publish this in your Facebook profile and share your look-alikes with your friends.

I've had fun anyway and whew! At least there's no other me out there. I'm unique!!! LOL.

Technorati Tags: face profiler,coke's facial profiler,facebook applications

On the sidelines, what it must be like?

Every time I flip through channels and come across an episode of E or any show relating to how the paparazzi's are treating celebs, I cringe. I often wonder what it must be like to be in their shoes. Heavy security detail would probably be paying extra attention to crowd control.

Well for posh parties, they'd have to keep the crowd at bay with velvet rope and stanchions. These can be formal and stylish enough to go with events like these. Although the crowd will probably be more tame than at concerts. For concerts, barricades would do well. Rock concerts can have so many mosh pits in them and these would do well for keeping the crowd where they have to be.

I never really put much thought into it, but yeah when you're standing in the sidelines it's good to have something to keep things orderly. And if I was on the spotlight, well that would be a different thing all together.

Technorati Tags: crowd control,crowd,lines

Red Ribbon's Santa's Wish Cake

One of the cakes launched at the recent Double Cake event at Red Ribbon for bloggers was the Santa's Wish Cake. Most of us have nicknamed it "The Christmas Cake." The cake is pristine white, decorated with the most recognizable icon of the Christmas season - Santa Claus. The sides of the cake are also adorned with red and white christmas trees, making the cake more festive and a delight to look at.

Red Ribbon's Santa's Wish cake is made with moist and dense rhumbutter cake with a layer of creamy caramel filling and covered in soft and smooth icing.

Red Ribbon is offering this cake for pre-order from November 27 to December 15 and will be sold in stores from December 22 to 24 at only Php550.

I loved this cake, it wasn’t too sweet and the cake is just meltingly light. It’s best to snack on this while having freshly brewed coffee. That’s what they served us during the event and man, it was soooo good.

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: red ribbon,christmas cake,cakes,santa's wish cake,food events,food tasting

Translia: Reliable and innovative Translation platform

Until now, professional translation has been very expensive and troublesome. It used to constantly give nagging headaches due to complicated user interfaces for big and small companies alike. Translia aims to get away from that bad notions and provide a translation service platform that's not only easy to navigate but is also accessible to prospective clients and done by a professional translator.

One more thing to note is that their translation service is as easy as uploading a file, getting it translated and getting the file sent to you. There's no other unnecessary steps to follow and registering on the site is also free.

Speaking of free, the site also offers free translation. Yep, FREE! Don't get me wrong, they do offer premium packages tailor fitted to your requirements but at very affordable rates but on the offhand, they do offer services for free. Since they are very big on customer satisfaction, once you avail of a rate package, you don't pay until you're completely satisfied.

If you have any more questions about their services, they offer a very in-depth guide page that can be easily located on the homepage. Here, there are some faqs on specific topics. Any lingering doubts or troubleshooting that you need to be done can be located here.

Technorati Tags: translia,professional translator,online translator

Red Ribbon's Double Cake Launch

I was recently invited to the launch of Red Ribbon's two exclusive cakes for the holidays by Jonel Uy of Nomnom Club. I came straight from another event and arrived an hour late, thankfully though when I got there the presentation was just being started. So I quickly scampered over the nearest table and took a seat.

What I noticed with all the Red Ribbon events that I got invited to, was the abundance of yummy food and of course cakes! I had a very scrumptious dinner while they were doing the presentations and looking at the photos and commercial clips of the new cakes made me anticipate dessert.

snagged from my friend Azrael’s album

I will discuss these two new cakes in detail in my succeeding posts but I'll leave a note here that they were very delicious. Red Ribbon has done it again. They never fail to innovate and create new cake flavors that are sure to be bestsellers. The only twist here is, these cakes will only be available during the holidays, so we get to enjoy them while it lasts.

I got called upon to play a game called "Pinoy Henyo" and I won! Woohoo! My mind was a complete blank while I was sitting there though, looking at the sea of faces and then frantically racking my brain for the right context clues to ask. Hahaha it was no easy feat. I must have made a very lucky guess!

 

Technorati Tags: red ribbon,cakes,blogger events

Google for power searchers

If I’m going to do multiple searches, I usually just open a lot of tabs on my browser for each of the searches that I’m looking up but now thanks to this site I found named Googlegooglegooglegoogle, I can do multiple searches in just one tab. This is recommended for users with widescreen monitors ideally 17” or more so that you don’t have to squint to see your search results, but if you can do with the font size on a smaller screen resolution then you can try this out too.

Here’s a screenshot:

 

Technorati Tags: google,power search,search engines,searching tips

Coffee in creative shots

I’m a self-confessed coffee fanatic. I love coffee so sue me. hahaha Just kidding. Here is a compilation of some creative coffee mug/tumbler shots that I found that really caught my eye. It starts out with a simple subject enough but these were really presented in a pretty creative way and some great photography.

Enjoy! (I can almost smell the coffee brewing)

GG4B7SYPSWU9

Photo credits from left to right:

[ jRa7 ] Flickr, DeusXFlorida Flickr, apes_abroad Flickr, Manu Flickr, Cynthia Lou Flickr, James Korn via photo.net, Martha Stewart, via imgfave, *kamote Deviantart, fly51fly vi.sualize.us, starbuckslove Tumblr, Janisda Deviantart, eigenwys vi.sualize.us, shhilja Deviantart

Rotate your favorite site

Just for fun, try this out. Go to the Rotateme website and enter the URL of your favorite site. Surprise! The website is now rotated sideways! I’ve tried it out on my blog and amazingly all the links still work. Hahaha awesome!
See my blog sideways.

The New Friendster

Well, Friendster has finally revamped and launched a new look. I haven't opened my account in months! What turned me off before was the abundant spams leeching into my inbox and for comment approvals. I wasn't able to attend the launching event for bloggers last week and I just peeked into the new site now.

After browsing for a few minutes, here's what I think.

-It feels too much like a Facebook clone, just a different color and a few changes here and there but the layout and interface is a little too similar.

-I'm not too crazy about the new logo either. They could have done much better with a more formal or casual typeface, not the "scribbly" kind.

-Bigger friend thumbnails at least and it's much more organized now.

-Better photo album interface, which is good as well.

-I don't really get the point of the "wallet" feature but I guess it's for buying gifts for your friends at the Gift section.

-The games section might take a lot more for it to catch on. The games available in Facebook are still waaay better.

So was the revamp an attempt to regain its former popularity and reign over the social networking scene? Let's see if it works. I heard that Facebook is doing a makeover as well.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: friendster,revamped friendster

Better vision, create a video and win!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Incendia Health. All opinions are 100% mine.

Abbot Medical Optics Inc., specializing in laser vision correction, has launched a contest called iLASIK Video Contest. The videos should be about the impact of corrected or improved vision in your lives. There are 3 categories for the said contest, participants are required to choose at least one category to compete in. The categories are:

• "My contacts are getting in the way of my good time"
• "My favorite sport or activity would be so much cooler with better vision"
• "You should see life after the iLASIK Procedure"

The list of prizes include:

$5,000 Grand Prize

First Prize (one in each video category):

HDTV package — a $2,500 value

Second Prize (one in each video category):

The Flip UltraHD™ camcorder — a $199.99 value

Once you've decided on the best category and has conceptualized the contents of your video, submit your entry at www.GottaSeeThisNow.com. Please, make sure that you’re going to send in the best and most meaningful entry ever. Be as creative as you possibly can. Submit an original video that will catch the judge’s attention. Something that is very unique will of course get more nods than mediocre efforts.

After having submitted your entry to the site, one of the key factors to winning the grand prize is to get a lot of votes. So ask your friends and online buddies to vote for your entry. Promote it on microblogging sites such as Plurk and Twitter to encourage the people in your contact lists to vote. Never underestimate the power of social networking either, go ahead an promote your entry. Remember the more votes the better.

Spread the word, tell a friend about this contest as well.

You in? (Yahoo for good)

Join in on Yahoo’s campaign to send out ripples of kindness by updating your status with acts of kindness that you will be doing this holiday season. Log in here.

You can see what other people have contributed on the site just by clicking the heart icons on the map.

Technorati Tags: yahoo,yahoo for good

Smiles abound

Photo credits (clockwise from top)

Andrew*’s photostream, SuperFantastic’s photostream, ellie’s photostream, Roodee’s photostream, blmurch’s photostream, Lel4nd (busy)’s photostream, Dan Taylor’s photostream, emranks’s photostream, bpedro’s photostream, Snap’s photostream

Technorati Tags: smileys

Send sweet dreams my way

I can't remember the last time I've had any good dreams, lately my sleep has been disturbed by bad dreams and nightmares. My subconscious is probably sending me signals that I'm still way too stressed and burned out or much worse depressed. Try as I might to think happy thoughts before I go to sleep, bad dreams still come. Unfortunately.

Maybe I need one of those dreamcatchers. I used to hang one over my bed but I had to remove it when we renovated the room. A dreamcatcher is a traditional Native American object made from tying strands of sinew in a web around a small frame of wood decorated with feathers or beads. Bad dreams are supposedly not allowed to "filter" through the web while the good ones are.

I heard that this has to be given to you as a gift, so that it can properly work. Well until someone gives me one, I guess I'd have to sleep through the nightmares. But I wouldn't mind waking up from a good dream one of these days. I'll keep my fingers crossed anyhow.