6th Century - 600 Posts !

That’s right folks – 600 posts and it was back in January this year that I was chuffing over my 500 milestone post ! 

I couldn’t have managed the 100 posts between January and now without having participated in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and the A to Z Challenge (not that it was a part of ploy to achieve 600 posts but I quite like how it’s all worked out). 

A big shout out to all of you that take the time to swing by my haven that is my blog; for all your comments, feedback, support and motivation .. if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here.

WW #61 Natures Tunnel

Found this over on TheGirlThing.com and had to share this with you all.  I would love to go through a tunnel like this – whether it be by train or car or even walking. 

There’s something about being surrounded and totally encompassed by nature that appeals to me.  It sort of takes me to another place – away from the every day things that tend to clutter ones mind.  There’s a serenity in nature that just takes my breath away.

 

MM #82 Afrojack - Can't Stop Me

I was listening to this in my car on the way to the gym and it put me in the best mood ever. I absolutely love this verse (actually who am I kidding, this verse is repeated throughout the track) .. and it’s soooooo me !!! I love to dance, and if I have a good dance partner – I would dance until the morning light.

The year before I met this guy – we danced, and it’s as if everything and everyone around us sort of just blurred out and the only thing that mattered was the beats, the music and putting ourselves out there on the dance floor.  (That’s how it was for me anyway – will have to ask the guy what it was like for him haha)

If this was the last dance of the night
Will you join me till the morning light?
Dance the night away cause it feels right
You can't stop me, no-o-o

Feel the beat darlings, and don’t let anything stop you today, or anyday !

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. Rules are simple. Leave ONLY the ACTUAL LINK POST here and grab the code below and place it at your blog entry. You can grab this code at LadyJava's Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.   PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

Perfect Skin In 5 Steps

It’s downright perverse…The beauty industry says blackheads, pimples, and blemishes are signs of unhealthy skin. They are in fact signs your skin, as an organ, is working properly.

The skin, you see, is an organ of elimination. What your body can’t expel in urine or faeces it will push away through your skin. And what comes out? In a sense, your breakfast, lunch, and dinner—or rather the toxins arising from unhealthy eating.

The beauty industry says two things: 1. Be tender to your skin. 2. Put this cosmetics on…

I say:

Cleanse and nourish your skin from the inside, and give it some discipline. It’s easy: the purest nutrients…rigorous daily beauty routine. The beauty industry (at best) works on symptoms. I want you to work on underlying causes.

My simple message: Cleanse and hydrate your skin, within and without. Work with your skin’s natural month-long cycle—the time it takes for your skin to shed old cells and replace them with new ones. Follow these five simple steps and, starting in about a month, you’ll begin to see the healthy, glowing skin that, regardless of your age, you were meant to enjoy…

For more information about raw diet and natural beauty visit BeautifulOnRaw.com

Tonya Zavasta is the author of five books and two e-books about natural beauty and the raw food diet.

Check out her website BeautifulonRaw.com and follow her on Twitter here.

How To Meet Singles Doing The Things You Love

There are many ways to meet singles … you can meet them online, you can meet them at parties, you can meet them at grocery stores or even meet them while out with your friends. But how do you know if you will enjoy each other’s company? How do you know if you have anything in common? You really don’t. You have to go through the “getting to know you” process and learn as you go along. What if I tell you that you can skip a step and meet singles that you actually have things in common with? It’s true. I’ll show you how.

There are countless ways of meeting new people, but to meet singles doing the things you love ensures you at least have some things that you share. You can either do this on your own, or there are agencies that have these events lined up that you can register for (such as Meet Market Adventures). You can meet singles while biking, hiking, taking flying lessons, going parasailing, going bowling, wine tasting or even challenging yourself to some trivia. There are countless possibilities. It gives you an alternative to the regular dating scene and you know there are like minded single people attending.

If you aren’t interested in those types of activities, you can also take a class in something you love. Not only will you learn something new and enrich yourself, you have the potential to meet singles who enjoy the same thing. Have you ever wanted to learn how to cook Indian food? Did you always wish you could speak Italian? Perhaps you always wanted to become skilled at painting. Whatever it is, you will have fun and at the very least leave a bit more knowledgeable than you entered.

What other options? Well, you could join a gym or a sports team. I have met many men at the gym – it’s one of the best places to meet singles. It’s a great place to mingle with others and there’s ample opportunity to chat someone up over a barbell. Strike up a conversation with a hot guy/gal working out by asking how to use a certain machine or how best to lift certain weights. Co-ed sports are also great because you quickly develop a rapport with others in your league. At the very least you know these people care about their health and appearance which is a bonus if that’s important to you.

As you can see, there are so many fantastic ways to meet singles while doing the things you love. It’s a win-win really. The ideas above are fun, no pressure ways of keeping yourself out there and available while being true to yourself. So go out there, do what you enjoy doing … you never know, you might just meet the person of your dreams!

Your Sister in Dating Bliss,

Single Dating Diva for Singles Warehouse

Single Dating Diva is a divorced 30-something from Canada who is exploring the adventures of being back in the dating world. She is discovering that it is a totally different world than she left in her 20’s. Not only is she older with a different life perspective, the men that are single are also different. They range from the spectrum of non-committal players to the desperate. She decided not to discriminate and to give everyone a chance. It has led to some interesting experiences which she shares on her blog.

Single Dating Diva is one of Singles Warehouse's original bloggers and has provided some great advice on how to navigate the online dating world. Single Dating Diva has a background in Communications and Public Relations. In addition to writing her blog, she works in Health and Safety education. In her spare time she enjoys reading, trying out new restaurants, visiting museums and galleries, as well as spending time with friends and family. Follow Single Dating Diva on Twitter . And CLICK HERE to read more of her work on Singles Warehouse.

Do You Really Think Everyone Likes You ?

Time For A Reality Check

Did you know that Not Everyone Is Going To Like You ? Seriously.  I read this fab post written by @SingleGirlie for SinglesWarehouse and related to it (so much so that I couldn’t help pen my own thoughts on the topic- yay for inspiration – and you must read the original post like right now!)

In any relationship – whether it is with friends’, acquaintances or with a potential partner – you’ve got to realize that not everyone is going to like you the way you like them.  I’ve met more than my share of guys who indicate that they are interested but then never really follow through.  I put it down to the fact that they just don’t like me enough to come after me; AND I obviously don’t like them enough to go after them.  No one really comes out a loser in this.  I rather not waste my time or someone else's time if both are not on the same page.

If you are the outgoing type – it’s quite unlikely that you will find your soul mate in an introvert (although it could happen but the odds are low).  The same way if a guy has a preference for busty blondes, and you are a sporty brunette or a foxy red head – unless you are willing to dye your hair blonde and opt for bust implants – it’s quite unlikely the guy is going to ask you out if he has the option of dating a busty blonde.

Dealing with ‘I Don’t Like You … Like That’

As upsetting and disheartening it is to ‘accept’ that someone doesn’t fancy you enough to commit to date or want a long term relationship with you – it’s better to cut your losses short and deal with it then and there.  Why waste time and energy trying to make someone like you ? It should be easier than that right ?

A few years ago, I deciphered that my persona isn’t everyone's’ cup of tea – and I’m fine with that.  I don’t want to be everyone's’ type.  I have a select group of friends; and am even more selective about the guys I date and go out with.  I’ve tried to go out with the kinda of guy that looks good on paper and has the long term potential (read marriage) but I found myself bored shitless and wanting to shoot myself to put me out of my misery.

To be fair I’m pretty sure some of the guys I’ve gone out with wished I was more domesticated / homely and less of a social butterfly.  Yeah, I said good bye to those guys pretty quickly as well.  I can’t change who I am (sure I can tone it down a notch) but I am who I am the way you are who you are.

P.S Not All Your ‘Friends’ Like You Either

You didn’t see that one coming did you ?  I’m a social person – very out going; always know people at events, restaurants, parties – hell even on the street. All of these people come up to me / or I approach them, we say hi, we sometimes hug or give each other air kisses, have a quick chat or toast a shot across the bar, even pose for photos .. you get my drift. Does that mean they all ‘like me’ ? Maybe … maybe they just ‘like me on some level’ but not on a best mates / inner circle level. Someone asked me “doesn’t it bother you?” and honestly it doesn’t. If that person meant so much to me – wouldn’t they already be a part of my inner circle ? ‘Levels of Like’ vary from person to person and that’s just a part of life. Nothing you or I can do will change that.  I rather be friends with people who accept me just the way I am than having to change my entire personality to fit in with their perception of ‘cool’.

Moving Forward – There Are Others Out There

At the end of the day – if you can accept that you are not everyone's’ type – it’s going to make life a lot easier for you.  The next time a cute guy/girl doesn’t come back for a second date or seems to pull a fade on you – don’t beat yourself up about it.  You may be dogs bollocks to those around you – but just not to that person.  And that’s okay.  You don’t need to change anything about yourself to suit the criteria of that other person.  Just be who you are and you will meet Mr / Miss Right For YOU !

My BFF @madamnatalia wrote this on her FB today and I think it’s something we should all remember :

“Everybody is not going to like you. Everybody is not going to agree with you.  Everybody can never be you.”

No two people are alike.  We can seek similar qualities, personality traits, ambitions in a person.  Your friends and your potential partner are there to complement you, guide you, bring you down when your head swells up, and most of all to tell you things straight up that no one else (other than your mother) will tell you.

Another thing is that, all of us must also learn to like ourselves (flaws et al) because once we do; then we project that confidence to those around us and thus increase the chances of others liking us for who we are (although that doesn’t necessarily mean in a romantic way). This may sound obvious and unnecessary but you’ll be surprised how many guys & girls actually suffer from low self esteem.

What are your thoughts ?

MM #81 Maroon 5 - Nothing Lasts Forever

I got to hear some amazing tunes over the weekend .. works with lyrics and all ! Courtesy of my mates the AM siblings.

This is one of the tracks that AM (the bro) put up on his FB and I quite liked it.  It’s probably one of the best break up songs(it’s not sappy, doesn’t have depressing background music).  Yes I said best break up song. 

The reason I picked this tune for today’s MM is because the weekend doesn’t last forever and Monday is there to remind us of that.  So whilst it’s sad that the only way to face the week is by giving up all thoughts of th weekend – until the next weekend that is!

 

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. Rules are simple. Leave ONLY the ACTUAL LINK POST here and grab the code below and place it at your blog entry. You can grab this code at LadyJava's Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.   PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

What’s All The Pinterest About ?

Over the last few weeks everyone seems to be talking about ‘Pinterest’.  I’d read about it and heard about the ‘by invitation only’ access and thought that I should go and check it out. 

Good news.  I went to their site and requested to ‘join’.  Got my ‘invitation’ within a few days.  Bad News.  I couldn’t sign up !! After a weeks’ battle of trying to actually create and log into my Pinterest account; I figured out that I couldn’t sign up using Chrome and had to register using Explorer instead. 

After finally getting my account sorted out - I’ve managed to browse around the site and see how I could use it for myself and also for my business.

What’s All The Pinterest About

It’s yet another networking site – but this time more with images.  It’s essentially a way to organize your ‘visual thoughts’ by way of creating ‘boards’ and ‘pinning’ images to it. 

It’s a lot like Facebook in the sense that when someone posts something, you can like it, share it, and comment on it.  You can ‘follow’ people (kind of like ‘friending’ a person) and see all their updated ‘pins’ (i.e posts) on your home page.

The best way to find ‘boards’ that interest you are to look out for key words.  For my business account I would look for boards that are related to ‘destination weddings’ or ‘wedding hair styles’.  For my personal account I’ve created my first board ‘Quotes’ where I’m collecting different quotes that have been created in a visually appealing way.

The feature I like most is the fact that I can create a ‘pin it’ button that can be used directly from my browser to be able to ‘pin’ images from other websites directly to a relevant board (and if you don’t have one – can create one).

I suppose I can see what the fuss is all about.  It’s a cool site and am sure it’s useful for a lot of businesses out there (especially for people in the service / hospitality sector)

To know more about Pinterest, check out these blog posts :

1. 35 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Pinterest
2. Beginners Guide to Pinterest Basics

If you are on Pinterest or if you fancy joining it – don’t forget to follow me or like some of my pins.  The Pinterest account for my company AKA : A Klass Apart can be found here.

WW #60 Sunkissed Hammock Views

I wish I was on that hammock right now.  I just want to be near the water, somewhere surrounded by nature watching a beautiful sunset.  (With someone special would be an added bonus)

 

 

Geeks vs Nerds Infographic

At first blush, there seems to be little difference: Nerd or geek. What does a name matter? Both geeks and nerds are intelligent, often socially awkward and interested in obscure topics, right? Wrong. For geeks and nerds alike, there's a lot in a name.

Nerds find their origins in a Dr. Seuss rhyme – "A nerkle, a nerd and a seersucker too!" Nerds are more interested in academics and usually have specialized but often impractical skills. You are likely to find them watching Battlestar Galatica and Lord of the Rings and playing away on a PC.

Alas for self-identified nerds, geeks are more appreciated by the public at large. People see geeks as cool early adopters of new technology, a good person to troubleshoot your computer and even possibly a successful professional. Geeks can be found watching Arrested Development and Anchorman (really anything with Will Ferrell) and playing with their iPad.

From: Masters In IT

Gerri Elder is a web content producer, editor, social media strategist and most importantly, Mom. 

You can find her on Twitter via @absolutelytrue and check out her website Absolutely True and Masters in IT

Diva’s Top 40 Tunes (Part 2)

So much can be said for music.  When you hear the word ‘music’ it sort of makes you take a step back and a flash flood of all your favourite tunes whiz by in your mind.  Sometimes it makes you smile, sometimes it makes you teary eyed – regardless of how you react – the thing about music is that it always makes you react in some way or form.

Sometime ago I put together the Diva’s Top 40 tunes; and now I have part 2 ready for you all.  Hope you enjoy this collection of tunes.

1. One Night Only – Chemistry
2. She Wants Revenge – Tear You Apart
3. Deep Dish – We Gonna Feel It
4. Black Eyed Peas – Meet Me Halfway
5. Jennifer Paige – Crush
6. Edward Maya – This is My Life
7. David Guetta – The World Is Mine
8. Craig David ft Bob Sinclair – Hot Stuff
9. Cher – Shoop Shoop Song
10. Eminem – Shake That Ass
11. Flo Rida – Club Can’t Handle Me Right Now
12. Enrique Iglesias – Tonight I’m F*cking You
13. Musiq Soulchild – Just Friends
14. LaidBack Luke – Till Tonight
15. Chromeo – Bonafide Loving
16. Ice Cube – You Can Do It
17. Da Brat – Da B Side
18. London Beat – I’ve Been Thinking About You
19. Wynter Gordon – Dirty Talk
20. Reflekt – Need To Feel Loved
21. Alexandra Stan – Mr Saxobeat 
22. Maroon 5 – Moves Like Jagger
23. Goo Goo Dolls – Iris
24. Planet Funk – Chase the Sun
25. Iio – At The End
26. Pitbull feat NeYo – Give Me Everything
27. Nayer – Sauve
28. LMFAO – Sexy & I Know It
29. Florence & The Machine – Dog Days Are Over
30. Warren G – Regulate
31. Booty Luv – Just Say It
32. Erick Morillo – Live Your Life
33. Jamie Woon – Night Air
34. Birthday Tunes
35. Avatars of Dub – Elevator Sex Music
36. Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know
37. David Guetta – Crank It up 
38. Kid Cudi – Day & Night  
39. Lady Antebellum – Just A Kiss
40. Taio  Cruz – Dynamite 

I would love to know if any of these track have had an impact on you or made you connect with a memory from another time.  It’s always nice to associate a part of your life with a piece of music.  That’s how I feel anyway.

Share the love, share the music – after all it is #MusicMonday !

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. Rules are simple. Leave ONLY the ACTUAL LINK POST here and grab the code below and place it at your blog entry. You can grab this code at LadyJava's Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.   PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

Social Media Tools that will Save you Time!

It has taken me nearly 9 months to come up with a way of dealing with all my social media accounts and not be overwhelmed with the responsibility. Many people now have multiple social media accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and so on, so it’s important not to spend your whole day stuck to your computer screen, it’s bad for your health for starters!

Whether you are a small business or just an avid social media fan there are a wealth of tools out there which can help you manage your time online. Maybe you like spending a lot of time online interacting with your friends, family and followers, or maybe you’re in business and need to free up some time to actually get on with your work.

Here are some great tools (in no particular order) I have come across in the last 9 months which I wouldn’t be without, I have written about most of these on my own blog:

Tweetdeck

Since Tweetdeck was updated a few weeks ago I have been using it a lot. You can use Tweetdeck with Twitter and Facebook. I can consolidate all my own accounts and my client’s accounts on here and can easily scroll through them quickly to see any mentions or interactions. I used to schedule tweets through Tweetdeck but it was a cumbersome operation and took me such a long time just to do a week’s worth of posts, I now use SocialOomph for scheduling...

SocialOomph

Automation of updates is a hot topic among the social media circles, some like it, others hate it... it’s a bit like marmite!

If I was being honest I didn’t like automation when I first started out, it seemed as though the person didn’t really care about being on social media. My opinion quickly changed when I realised how much time social media can take up, I just wasn’t getting any real work done and I was starting to get stressed with it all.

SocialOomph lets you schedule tweets, and with the advanced plan, Facebook and blog posts as well. I have a paid account and it has definitely paid for itself in the number of client’s I have gained through Twitter alone. I love the queue reservoirs, I can add updates when I think of them and add them to the queue. You set a time frame, so say every 2 hours and the queue is tweets out and it goes to the back of the queue and so it carries on. To really benefit from this you need to have a lot of updates in your reservoir because people don’t want to be seeing the same updates over and over. I tend to check mine once a week, delete old irrelevant ones and add some new ones.

I also have my clients profiles on here using queue reservoirs and it’s a great way of getting your updates out there but not being tied to your computer 24/7 - plus it frees up your time to interact more with your followers/fans.

Buffer

Buffer works by scheduling Tweets, Facebook or LinkedIn updates at optimum times of the day. When you install it, either as an add-on for your browser, on your iPhone or a widget on your blog/website, you can click the Buffer icon and the tweet/link/update will automatically be scheduled to post at the next time slot.

I recently upgraded my account with Buffer so I am now able to have 6 accounts and 50 updates per account.

I use Buffer with Flipboard and SocialBro, they link very nicely!

SocialBro

SocialBro is all about stats, it tells me everything I could ever want to know about my followers and who I follow on Twitter.

Within the application you can customise what you want to see such as 'Best Time to Tweet' or 'Analyse Your Competitors' and so much more! You can also link it to Buffer and it will automatically customise the best times to tweet, it suggests you do it once a week so your tweets go out at optimum times.

Flipboard

This app is for the iPad and iPhone. When you are overwhelmed with social media this is a great app which consolidates everything into a magazine style format. You can flip through page after page of updates, it's nothing like your Twitter feed, and it includes the images so it makes it so much easier to pick out items of interest. You can also add customise searches, and you can link a lot of your social media accounts. I have mine linked to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Reader, but there are other options too.

I am always interested in what others use for managing their social media, so why not follow me on Twitter and let me know, or comment on this blog post.

Jo Harrison of Writer's Block Admin Services is a British Virtual Assistant based in South West France. Jo specialises in social media management for small businesses and eBook formatting. Jo's blog contains further articles on social media tips and the eBook industry.

Looking Back At The A to Z Challenge

Damn.  The A to Z Challenge really took its toll on me.  I’ve been wanting to blog but I’m honestly so mentally drained that haven’t been able to string a post together.  But I know I have to get this post up and running if I want to be a part of the ‘A to Z Reflections’ crew of awesome bloggers.

This was my first A to Z Challenge and I’ve got to admit it was a lot of fun ! I wasn’t sure that I’d finish it on time or if I could stay on track but I did and it felt really good to accomplish the blogging goal I had set for myself.  Looking back at the challenge, here’s what I’ve gathered from it …

Theme Writing Can Be Fun

I’ve participated in challenges before and what I really liked about the A to Z challenge was the letter prompt.  We all know our alphabets – and with every alphabet comes a spectrum of endless possibilities we can pick and choose from to write about.  It’s a push in the right direction.  I picked my blog theme as ‘A to Z of Blogging’ and I think I managed to do a pretty damn good job with my posts.

Makes You Accountable

I knew I had to post every day ‘cos everyone else was going to be doing that.  Participating in the challenge made me accountable for my posts – not just for myself but also for all the other bloggers who were participating and visiting blogs.  It worried me that a new blogger would come and visit my blog and there would be no new post and they would end up leaving disappointed.  I made it a point to draft up and schedule as many posts as I could so that there was always a new post for each day.

Blogosphere Friends Are Super Supportive

The friends one makes in blogosphere and blog hopping are honestly awesome people.  During the course of the challenge, I came across so many new bloggers and what really kept me going was the fact that they would turn up to my blog every day and leave me comments that gave me a chance to react and respond to them.  When I needed help with post ideas ‘cos some alphabets were just really hard to come up with a tip for – they were there tweeting ideas to me.  That’s a different level of friendship there. 

Learn Something New Everyday

There were over 1500 bloggers participating in the challenge which meant that I got a chance to discover some amazing blogs & bloggers.  I didn’t go through every blog out there – but I read about others who had checked out every single participating blog !  I bow down to that ! I’m grateful for the fact that the 30+ blogs I was checking out all taught me something new – every day !  Whether it was gardening tricks; cooking tips; writing tips; movie & book reviews – it was a great learning experience.  I even managed to learn some Swedish ‘cos one of the blogs I was following was using the alphabets to teach useful Swedish words.  All of the blogs I have read have been an inspiration to me and given me a bucket load of new post ideas as well for the future =)

I’d Do It All Over Again

Yes it’s true – I would do it all over again.  I’d also be better prepared for the next time around.  I actually came to know about the challenge towards the end of 2011 and I thought ‘oh I have time, I can put together my posts before hand’ (in retrospect, what the f*ck was I thinking).  I only ended up writing my posts a few days before the challenge started.  Next time around – I’m going also going to participate via my business blog – so that’s double the posts.  (yeah I’m crazy but if others can do it – so can I)

Would love to hear about your experience during the course of the challenge if you have participated.  If you haven’t, would you consider participating next year ?