Monday, November 29, 2010

MINT

While working towards our goals in our lives, it is inevitable that we set up budgets to plan our way towards achieving them.

As important as keeping our goals on sight, the budgeting planning process is one of the most critical to keep plans realistic. Sometimes, we might spend more than what we earn. Without knowing the consequences can be drastic. Hence, knowing what you can afford to spend with the necessary tools in budget planners such as budget worksheet helps greatly.

Christmas is coming and during such festivities including the Thanksgiving, New Year and summer holidays which are recurring huge costs that needs budgeting. From time to time, you might find a budget calculator useful. For me, I am really not the best at Excel program in the windows. I think a good budget calculator should be user friendly and I simply have to enter all the necessary figures to make it work well on the budget planning side for me.

One big tip about budgeting is not underestimating your expenditure. It is always a temptation to try to fool yourself by underestimating your expenses. Besides being consistent, being accurate is also important. Guess larger by overestimating is better than less, as you will have cash left over instead of being short of. The way about savings can also be making use of a simple technique called double checking. 

For example, I check the prices of the big ticket items I am planning to purchase online before actual buying. Some not so big ticket items such as printers or laptops which one would buy every two or three years can be managed with online HP coupons. You cannot avoid shipping cost usually for such $125 - $1200 or more items. However, you can save some money on such orders with coupons. If you consider $400 discount for a new laptop purchase using the coupons, it is not just valuable and you can find the best deals easily at a glance.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Sausage (Zagreb)


This same kind of sausage (Sült kolbász) is found in Zagreb too. Try it during our trip to Zagreb and since the weather is turning colder, eating it in the outdoor is rather warming. This cost only 15 Kuna and you can have a free choice of mustard, tomato sauce (ketchup) or mayonnaise on it.

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PDF Classic Books

Monday, November 22, 2010

HTC Mobile Phone Comparison Site

There are so many new mobile phones models nowadays and the phone market is so competitive. Have you ever wonder where you can find a good comparison site for mobile phones and the good phone deals? Today I would like to share one such site where you may search for the best HTC Mobile Phone deals from any network, be it Orange, O2, Vodafone, T-Mobil, 3 Mobile, Virgin or SIM Free. It provides the best deals with the Tariff Name, listing the contract duration, the number of free text messages as well as the HTC phone model that comes with the deal.

You can also see the total savings if you buy it now, and the total discounts other than informing you which online site you can buy it online. Or with just a click you can place your order in a secure site. Insurance details or you can click back to continue shopping. It is really great to see every deal that you want to compare all on one page.

Some teenagers prefers mobile phone deals that provides 1000 Free Text Messages. In this site, you can search by the 300, 500, 900 or even 1000. And a list of all possible deals will be shown for your comparison. I guess a best deal will be unlimited if you are students or text messaging has become a way for you to socialize with your friends and family.

Others comparison include searching by the gifts. It is ideal for those who would also be planning to purchase a laptop or netbook or notebook, for instance. Car kit, TV, iPods, Xbox, Nintendo, Sony Playstation etc. I personally think this feature is great since the Christmas is coming and a great time to provide suggestions as an appropriate gift for your loved ones.

Whether you are interested to compare the HTC 7 Mozart with the HTC 7 Trophy or making finer yet distinct comparisons between the four HTC Desire mobile phone models from Z, Black or HD. Now at a glance, you find it on this comparison site that is solely for HTC Mobile Phone.

Monday, November 15, 2010

John Cusack dressed as Edgar Allan Poe -The Raven


John Cusack dressed as Edgar Allan Poe taking a stroll while filming in Budapest. (That's the cobbled stones streets in Budapest). Wow, another filming location chosen right at the end of our street!

This one is more exciting because they simulated the location to be like 19th century with real horse and its carriage. Part of the changes included the signages of the streets to simulate this effect. We caught a quick glimpse on location as the night shot for this horror poem 'The Raven' had the atmosphere sensationalized with a foggy effect and the woman cast in those fluffy 19th century vintage clothing, those with ken-ken, possibly of the 1840s :)

I am curious how they can film it as it is based on the poem which tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness.

PDF Classic Books

Garage del parco

I am fond of Italian cars. I am driving an Alfa Romeo 156 which is like a miracle. Superfast, superstrong and its voice is very amazing. They say they are sensitive, and I agree if we consider the soul of the car.:) Sensitive like a woman or like a proud gazelle.

auto usate milano


My previous car was stolen. It was a Toyota and I was totally satisfied with it as it was very reliable and modest. But I can't compare the feeling because you can say anything about an Alfa Romeo but modest. It is a sport car with a lot of stamina. An elegant beauty that attracts me anytime when I look at it.

vendita auto usate


I have bought both cars on the Internet. Sites like the Italian garagedelparco.com are perfect sources of information. In fact garagedelparco is a family enterprise rooted back to the 60's to a mechanics Anthony Artuso who has run a car repair service in Italy. His son Alessandro has transformed the former garage into a professional dealership in 1978 in Valparaiso. Now basically Anthony, his son Alessandro and his daughter Manuela Artuso is running the service. A real Italian family enterprise.

compro auto usate


Maybe it is the atmosphere of the family business but at garage del parco, they take care of their customers. I think, when it comes to sales, and especially car sales, reliability is very important. It is easy to attract someone for a moment and to sell the garbage as a good a car. The success of the moment will be the failure of the future as the reputation of the seller will fall immediately. People will send bad comments and feedbacks to their website or to independent forums and these feedbacks are the real evaluations. In this term, garage del parco has very good feedbacks. Worth to try.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Who looks back from the mirror?

I have found these photos on stumble upon and they have immediately touched me. Originally this is a Novartis campaign and the photos were taken by Tom Hussey. All my respect to him.



My favorite is this old Japanese lady looking into the mirror and finding the young herself, a beautiful Asian lady there. We see the old lady from a profile only but they are definitely similar and there is a sort of conversation between them. The old lady is smiling, happy to see the young herself and at the same time she smiles like someone that knows. She knows her future, the lot of adventures and failures the young lady will experience. She is smiling like someone that understands and forgives all the mistakes and naiv thoughts.

The young beauty is rather serious. Only the eyes are smiling and curious. She is surprised that she has been watched by an old lady and she obviously doesn't recognise herself. If you look at her for longer her face becomes stonned. Maybe its a little movement a short movie within a photo, the caught moment of the surprise that is followed by the recognition....oh my God...this is me.

The photo looks like a fiction, a good idea but I find it very real. Almost every day when I look into the mirror I of course recognise the today me, but on the other hand the guy who is living in me is surprised every single day that who looks back from the mirror.

Andino iPhone and iPad Accessories

Both Zannnie and I have been an iPhone user for about two years. Recently we found an accessory for doubling its battery lifetime by Andino and we are very pleased. 

More than 240 hour of standby time. 
This indeed serves the function very well! There are also choices from mystic black, pure white or even diesel black to choose from. We really like its non-slip comfort grip with a soft-touch form-fitting. This solution is really excellent as our friend who owns an iPhone4 has recently dropped his iPhone4 at ear height.

Not a joke at all, being glass back, of course it shattered and the way to go about it is to have a full wrap-around case like this one. Best of all, it is impact-resistant.

Andino's iphone4powerplus2


Other than this, we like that it is easy to assemble. 

I remembered having a special casing which I had chosen but the top corners broke within the same day of purchase and it was totally a let down. Now you can see how quick to put on this ergonomically designed battery accessory:-


Comes with a USB mini cable.
That allows me to charge and sync with iTunes at the same time. There is also a free choice of using the on/off switch to select which battery to use.

The other smart feature is that is a built-in short circuit to detect over-charge and also serves as a temperature protection. This Andino accessory is really a great designed!


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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Udu

Yesterday I have got a wonderful present from one my colleagues. She is into management but in her free time she is dealing with cheramics and she mastered how to make ancient cheramics from clay with archaic technology.

She made for me this UDU.

Udu is an archaic African instrument made of clay. Udu means something like vessel in lgbo language and its widely used in different music groups especially by percussionists. I really love this peace. The dragoon on it looks wonderful and I love the way it was created.

It is quite difficult to make an UDU with this ancient technology. The clay you have to choose carefully, maybe the Mexican clay is the best for this. If its not wet enough you can add some water. You have to roll the clay out with a rolling pin to make it very thin. Blow up a balloon and drape the clay over the balloon. Let the pot dry for the night.




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Monday, November 8, 2010

Driving or Riding

I have been living in the downtown for a couple of months. In the very downtown. It is pretty crowded and everything is within 5-10 mins distance so I do not really use my car anymore. I ride the tram I take the metro or I walk. Totally different feeling. I can hear people talking around me, the tramway is like a meeting point with a lot of impressions. I sort of got used to it and I enjoy to be among people.

But today I had a meeting in the suburb of Budapest. I decided to go by car and it was a strange very good feeling. It was raining a bit, sort of cold. The usual wet Autumn with falling leaves. But within the car I turned on the air condition it was pretty warm I was sitting (usually on the tram I have to stand) and I was listening to the radio. To drive in a city has a mood. Traffic jam is annoying but otherwise its very fast and smooth way of travelling. To be honest I enjoyed it a lot.

The disadvantage of using a car is that it is a lonely scene. I am closed into my box. The tram or metro is more social, at times I even communicate with the people but definitelly not as comfy as driving. Which do you prefer in your city? Driving a car or taking a tram?




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Thursday, November 4, 2010