where the moon shines

Here’s one more blog whose feeds I receive via email – The Business Opportunities Weblog.

The blog features stories of small businesses and good ideas. Some of the stories are really quite inspiring. I’ve found myself clicking through to read the full story, and even to checkout the websites of the businesses themselves. I have hopes of finding what service I can provide to the world, and venture into my own business. I just don’t know what it is yet. This blog that shows me others who have found their niche and built their own empires can be truly inspiring.

Yesterday, one of the stories I particularly clicked through, is that of Swimmable Mermaid Tails:

Pretty aren’t they? With these custom-made mermaid tales, any girl’s mermaid dream can come true. It’s not just a costume for show, they can actually swim in it. I don’t think this Etsy business has any competition. Photo is from Etsy.

So the blog features business such as this one, and lots more. Though I haven’t seen them feature this business yet, but this credit card for teens sounds like something I’d expect to see on their pages. They also post trivia via their “Today in Entrepreneurial History” posts.

If you’ve missed it, here are other blogs from my Reader.

My Reader is a collection of feeds from all sorts of blogs. I have scrapbooking blogs, mommy bloggers, tech bloggers, foodies, celebrities, and so much more. Today, let me feature a tech blog – Geeky Gadgets.

From its About page:

Geeky Gadgets is designed to provide up to the minute daily technology news on the latest advances in the technology sector including software, hardware and gadgets from around the world.

Geeky Gadgets features in-depth reviews on the latest devices with impartial coverage of the features and developments of new technology.

Many times I have learned of cool new stuff from this blog. iPhone accessories, cool new cameras, just to name a few. I’m pretty sure I’ve linked up to their posts a couple of times in the past.

They don’t always have long in-depth review articles though, which is actually to their advantage. It’s like they give out feelers and then link you up to relevant reviews. They hook you up on something and send you off. Haha

I read Geeky Gadgets a little differently than the other blogs I’ve so far featured here on From My Reader. I have been following them a little longer than I’ve curated my Google Reader. So Geeky Gadgets isn’t there, instead, I subscribed to their feeds via email. And that works. I don’t read each and every post they have, but when I see a headline or a picture of interest, I click on it and read the whole post.

Today, there are two posts that got me reading:

The Eco-Amp Paper iPhone Amplifier. I have heard this before and even read how simple it is to make a paper ‘horn’ to amplify the sound from your iPhone or iPad. I’ve never tried it though. This paper speaker is made from post-consumer materials – recycled! And costs $7.99 for a pair.

Maybe I can attempt a DIY though. I’ll show Alfred and see if he can fashion one for me

This rollup stylus also seems a good idea. It’s still in development, and the creators are raising funds via Kickstarter, yet another site I receive email updates for.

The pen can lay flat and adheres to the iPad Smart cover. Since my iPad is of the first generation variety, this is no use to me really. Smart covers were created for the iPad 2. I still have my Targus stylus and it is small enough to carry around everywhere (though I hardly ever use it really).

So anyway. If you want to keep updated with tech news and the latest gizmos, checkout Geeky Gadgets!

The Tiny House Blog is a very recent addition to my Reader.

From the blog’s About page:

The goal of the tiny house blog is to discover the different options available for a person looking to down size into a tiny house or cabin. I will be looking at different type of construction, from logs, to yurts to modern and the unusual. I will also do book reviews, look at alternate energy for heat and electricity. I also want to hear your story so please contact me with your pictures and your own experiences in living simply and small.

I enjoy looking at the beautiful tiny houses, a lot of them people actually do live in. I don’t take notes or anything but perhaps I should, if I ever want to live in the condo I’m paying for. It’s not a tiny house like the ones featured in the blog, but their use of space and the solutions they offer for storage and functionality is something that can definitely be adapted to my own little condo. Or to my small room!

Anyway, here’s a video that was posted on the blog on May 10th. It’s a tour of the original (the first) Jay Shafer Epu. Sorry, I don’t know enough about tiny homes to know Jay Shafer, but he seems to be pretty big in the tiny house circle. As for me, I just followed the Tiny House Blog because I thought the small houses were cute! Now I’m thinking there’s more to it…

Let’s checkout the video –

While watching I kept thinking – maybe this is one solution for the lack of affordable housing and the lack of space in Metro Manila. Tiny homes like this could be built for squatter families and it won’t take a lot of space. It would be more humane to live in a house like this than in their cardboard shanties. Unless there are ten heads in one family.

What do you think?

Celebrity Erwan Heussaf blogs as The Fat Kid Inside. I don’t really know much about him except that he is a trained chef, he’s the Food Editor at Esquire Philippines (I think), he is boyfriend to actress Anne Curtis, and brother to Solenn Heussaff. But he didn’t land on my Reader because of those. I read about his nomination to Nuffnang Asia Pacific’s Blogger Awards last year so I checked out his blog. I wasn’t about to vote for him just because he is Pinoy. I wanted to do so out of real appreciation for his blog.

Yes, I voted for him. I also subscribed to his feeds (are you subscribed to mine?).

Recently, he started what he calls the Skill Shop. He has two posts for this category so far and I’ve Pinned them both.

I love that he shares videos and not just photos of his food/recipes. The focus of his videos is the process, and the food itself. You don’t even see him after his signature opening billboard. He’s got skills, this guy! So far, he has the best blog videos I’ve seen.

The food he shares are mostly healthy. He also talks a lot about exercise and living a balanced life. He trains and runs. That’s how he keeps the fat kid inside, and mister lean and healthy outside.

I kinda half-expect to him to be doing art or music too. I can imagine him with a Rogue Bass guitar, or maybe not. Maybe he’s the type who plays the violin, or the piano. A Classical music guy. He just seems like the type. A perfect guy really. Haha.

What I really really like about his blog? His writing style. He’s very easy to read. Not complicated. Doesn’t try to be funny. His topics, very relevant to me who is all fat outside.

People know that I can bake, but I don’t cook. Never really tried. So Erwan’s Skill Shop is something I appreciate, I really hope to learn a trick or two from it. Maybe I’ll try the Perfect Creamy Scrambled Eggs for brunch tomorrow. Maybe.

If you read Between the Covers, you know that I’m currently reading The Happiness Project. When the author embarked on her year long experiment to find Happiness, she also launched the Happiness Project Blog, today’s feature for From My Reader.

Through the blog feed, one can expect bite-sized doses of what the happiness project is all about – cultivating your own happiness. Each post comes with an idea, or a collection of ideas, on how we can find our own happiness, or how we can be happier. Like the book, it’s not all sunshine either. The author is true to her first commandment of ‘being Gretchen.’ When there is something bothering her, or if she is unable to stick to her resolutions – she owns up to it.

If you’d like to find out how you can fill your life with more rainbows and sunshiny days (not to be taken literally!), check out the blog. Then decide if you would like to read the book as well.