Interesting stuff

The Hunt for Gollum

I was browsing through the Entrecard and Adgitize networks this morning when I got a link to the free independent online movie, The Hunt for Gollum.  I just watched it tonight, and I’m sure LOTR fans (books and movies) would enjoy seeing it too. Here’s a trailer (which can also be viewed in HD):

If you have 40 minutes to spare though, you might want to watch the full movie. It is not made for profit so sharing it here is perfectly legal. According to the Hunt for Gollum website, the movie was made by enthusiast film makers who are all LOTR fans, and they made no profit by filming this project. I think it turned out well, and though you can’t help but think of Viggo Mortensen the whole time, the actor in this one didn’t do a bad job naman. 🙂

I have so many stories to share, starting with completing my Parks & Wildlife series and then moving on to our Baler vacation.  I’m lazy to do either.  In fact, I was too lazy to go malling today. Alfred’s out with his former team from NCO, having a blast at a resort somewhere in Montalban. As for me? I slept through the afternoon (though I didn’t intend to).

Anyhoo, you can watch the full HD movie, The Hunt for Gollum right after the jump (the screen’s too big for my blog layout, so pardon the misalignment:)

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It’s like twits, only longer

All of my Project Wonderful ads have been deleted. As in. In violation of their TOS.  I can’t argue against that, but I really wasn’t aware of the restriction agains sponsored posts. The thing is, sponsored posts have paid me twenty times more than I ever earned from PW so I don’t think I’m dropping that.  And I take pride in posting some blogs that are sponsored without my readers actually noticing it. There’s a lof of fun in writing those.  Haha 🙂

It takes awhile to earn from those anyway, but I still feel a little sad that that income stream is gone.  Oh well.

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I subscribe to a newsletter from a business opportunities weblog and today, I read about how huddles or five-minute meetings are good in the workplace.  I totally agree.  I also don’t like meetings because some of them are just a waste of time, but preshift/start of shift huddles are good for making everyone aware of where we’re at and to drive stats or better productivity for the day.  Conducting these pre shift huddles was something we were all doing at work upto maybe a month ago.  Now, we have hour-long performance meetings for team managers, and though I appreciate the accountability it has developed in all of us, it’s not something any of us really look forward to.  I think that we should go back to just having pre-shift huddles, and I’m all for the Tuesday shift knowledge sharing hour.

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While surfing through the Entrecard and Adgitize networks, I came acrosse this article about human foods that are deadly for dogs.  It lists Macadamia nuts too. Are regular nuts okay though? My dog eats peanuts sometimes and I hope those are okay.  The others on the list I’m pretty sure are out of reach for him and no one would ever give him chocolate.  I’ve told my nieces and nephews about that too because they are always around here and sometimes with chocolate. I find that whenever Esban is unsure if something’s okay to give to Zune, he’ll stop and ask me first. Good.

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For digiscrapaholics, the site DigiscrapAddicts is hosting another round of their So You Think You Can Design contest and there are so many amazing freebie kits available to download in their members only gallery.  I don’t know how many entrants there are, but Flergs and Redju Scrap, whose newsletters I receive in my Inbox are part of the competition. 🙂  I’m trying to find an announcement to post here but can’t find any so far… but here’s a link to the Week 1 gallery, but you’ve got to be registered and signed in to view them (I think): http://digiscrapaddicts.com/products/showgallery.php?cat=556

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I have another idea for a blog and I really, really want to do it. BUT I haven’t had much success in my photo blog (I mean, when was the last time I updated?) so I’m not very confident I’d actually do it well if I set this new one up. I’ll keep it under wraps for now.  My blog development priorities should be in this order – redesign this blog, re-evaluate if I want a real gallery versus my photoblog, setup a new one. 🙂
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While at the mall on Sunday, I realized that I am not familiar with the Department Store inside the MegaMall at all.  I mean, I can navigate SM Cubao and SM North pretty well, but the department store at Megamall? Not so much.  I guess that whenever we go there (which isn’t a lot as it seems) we skip the SM part of the mall, if you know what I mean.  So there was a three-day (or was it four?) sale over the long weekend and we just had to checkout the racks for men’s pants.  It wasn’t as crowded as I expected, and the cashiers/counters are better structured than the regular ones at the other branches. Haha.

Anyway, there’s always got to be a Health and Beauty section at SM right?  And now that they have Watson’s there, I always feel the need to pass through one when in the mall.  I figured that then was as good a time as any to look for facial wash – I couldn’t find their Pond’s section! What the heck?  I tried the Pond’s Age Miracle microdermabrasion kit and liked it. I wanted to get just a regular Age Miracle cleanser or something but since I couldn’t find any, I ended up making another Body Shop purchase.  I ended up with a Tea Tree Oil with peppermint facial wash. It is so refreshing! I used this line before, because I wanted to get rid of bleshimes.  I liked it. As soon as I used it though, I remembered why I wasn’t so keen on using it again – the tea tree oil smell can be overwhelming. Haha. But it is a wonderful product, so I don’t really mind.

My mom buys Garnier and I like the citrusy smell, and the facial scrub is also refreshing.  Alfred likes it too. There was a Garnier booth at the mall and we approached it thinking we’d pick up a tube for him.  As it turns out, they weren’t offering the facial wash tubes, they were eyebag roll-ons! Seriously! You know how we always think we have dark circles under our eyes and no amount of sleeping can get rid of? Well, Garnier has a new product that pledges to take care of that and instead of applying it on like regular eye cream, you roll it on. Hmm.

Anyway, I did not mean to sound like a promo girl for beauty products, but you should hear us at our room during the Youth Camp last month!  I think it was Ate Chu and Ate Verns (both from PETA theater company) who commented about Joy’s Body Shop products, and then I chimed in because I had my rich pomegranate body butter with me there too.  We sounded like we were trying to convert them to go for Body Shop! We talked about the membership card (which I have), and I even mentioned the company’s ties with NGOs and fair trade organizations. Haha.

Okay, I’ll stop now.

Whew, so much for a quick post. And I thought I had nothing to write about?

The Soap Factory, Etc.

After seeing the movie yesterday, we strolled around The Block for a bit. 

I saw this store, and fell in love:

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The Soap Factory, Etc just really drew me – nay, sucked me in! With such yummy colors and scents so delish, I’d have stayed to try each and every variant if I could. Their products are all hand made and all natural. The factory is in the shop itself, and you can sit and watch the staff as they make them!

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Their space isn’t so big. It’s just this wall of shelves arrayed with their products, then the factory on the other side. There’s a private place at the end of the room.  By the entrance, that’s where their POS system is, and there are jars (what do you call them?) for their small selection of massage oils. 

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I was short for cash so near the next payday (tonight, yay!) so I had to scrimp. I ended up going home with one slice each of the Geisha soap and Choco Cream (that’s what I remember their names are). You know I cannot resist chocolate, soap isn’t any different. 🙂 Each soap slice retails for 99 pesos, with a discount if you get a dozen. They have specialty soaps too that come in the form of your favorite desserts – cakes, donute, and yes, cupcakes too! They have about five product lines with one being Save Our Skin. I don’t have the details, but you can check out their site.

And you know what this is?

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That’s the bag I used to take home my two slices. It’s a small reusable bag and they have bigger sizes too, and a few other colors, though I can only remember seeing pink and brown. A killer combination. Haha. Next time I go to The Block to buy soap, I’d be taking this bag with me. PLUS points for The Soap Factory. Now, I’ve saved the best photo for last. You saw the photo of the cashier and the display rack there right? The one that looks like what you’d see in cafes housing cakes and pastries? Well see what’s on the top shelf:

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I won!

For the first time ever, I won something online! Woot woot! 🙂

Remember me blogging about Dette’s birthday party? Well it has started and what a blast, specially since I won the first giveaway. I’ve almost given up on online contests and giveaways because in all these years I’ve never won anything, but what a suprise I had when I swung by Dette’s this afternoon! 

Now the fun has really just started because she has so much prizes to give away. Thank you to all her sponsors for making it possible, it’s the biggest giveaway I’ve seen so far, I think. 🙂 The updated Everglow Party button on my sidebar will lead you where you can know what exactly I’m talking about. It’s really amazing how so many generous people have come together to help celebrate MammaDawg’s birthday with a very loud bang.

So let’s all head on over there and party!

Mammadawg’s Everglow Party!

See the new cute banner on my sidebar that just screams Party!? Well that’s the little sister of this one:
MammaDawg's Everglow Party
It’s a party for Mammadawg’s birthday, click on the banner to find out what cool giveaways she has for those attending her party.

I met  Dette (online, of course) through the Thursday Thirteen meme, many many moons ago. She was one of those blogs that I just continued to stalk even when it wasn’t Thursday. It’s probably because she’s Pinay, and she responds to comments. Oh and she writes well too – always has fun and interesting content about her family. 🙂 She started Scrapbook Saturday and so many other cool stuff that gets bloggers together. 

In advance, Happy Birthday Dette! 🙂

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