I am about to go to bed but today is a big day for me. It is the first time I introduce a bf to my parents! Please wish me luck that all goes well and that my parents see all of the wonderful qualities that I see in M.

And please don’t let M do one of his infamous burps in front of my parents after he drinks a coke. I am keeping all of the soda away from him.

haha jk.

Uhhhh, I never thought I would be spending my xmas holiday spanking the monkey. haha.

It’s addictive to play on the wii to see who can spank the monkey the fastest. (836!)

And yes, you can play flash games on the Wii for free. Pretty cool!! Here’s a link to a list of free games. It’s cool how playing these simple games on the Wii adds another dimension to it and makes it more fun than if you were to play on a regular old PC.

Merry Christmas girlrobot readers!!!! I hope everybody has a happy holidays and gets lots of cool presents! We opened our present xmas eve and I got a ton of cool stuff. I got a wii, a robot pencil sharpener, mr. bento, lots of clothes, a crank-powered LED flashlight (these things are awesome since you don’t need batteries, perfect for your car!), a UCLA tshirt and license plate, and a scrabble/sudoku game. My sister, the ebay seller, also hooked me up with some high end cookware and some cute jcrew flip flops. I also got a very large pen tablet from my brother. I love going home!! :)

I’ll leave you with some holiday humor:

I’m so excited! I have a slight obsession with bento boxes especially ever since I visited Japan earlier this year. There is just something about compartmentalizing tiny portions of food that makes me enjoy the food more. It must be the presentation! Anyways, for xmas one of my sisters got me a Zojirushi (the famouse rice maker brand) Mr. Bento Box!!!!

It has pretty good reviews on Amazon. The thing that is most cool about it, in my opinion, is that it keeps hot food hot and cold food cold. No need for a fridge or microwave. The only bad thing is the size (it’s quite large) and from the reviews it appears that the containers are not leakproof so if you tilt it or anything it will spill.

Anyways, I’m not very consistent about bringing my lunch but now that I have this cool container I will have to try harder to bring food to work just so I can use this nifty container haha. I already started looking up neat bento information and recipes.

Mr. Bento Flickr Pool: Mr. Bento has his own flickr pool. Check out the neat pics of other Mr. Bento owners!
OBento: A bunch of links to bento-related things. Check out the accessories links. There are sooo many cute bento things like these cute bottles with pipette so you can fill them with your favorite sauces!!

Bento recipes: Here are some great bento pictures and recipes

Xmas Bento Boxes

Here is another type of bento box that I was looking at awhile ago. It’s called a laptoplunch. It’s cheaper than Mr. Bento but does not keep your food temperature controlled. They also have recipes on their site but without an asian spin on it.

This online music player is pretty sweet. You can pick what genre of music you want it to shuffle through and also what “mood” you are in. It will develop a playlist for you based on these selections. I tried it out and so far it has some pretty good music and a large selection.

Musicovery

If you’re an eating out junkie like me, you’ll find these deals useful! Or give them out and keep the freebies for yourself :)

Chili’s: Buy $25 get $5 free
Dave & Buster’s: Buy $50 or $25 get $20 or $10 game card for free
Elephant Bar: Buy $25 get $5 free
Fuddruckers: Buy $25 get $5 free
Lawry’s: Buy $125 get $25 free
Macaroni Grill: Buy $24 get $5 free
Maggiano’s: Buy $25 get $5 free
On The Border: Buy $25 get $5 free
Rubios: Buy $25 get $5 free
Souplantation: Buy $100 get a free meal pass
TGIFridays: Buy $25 get $5 free
Todai: Buy $50 get $5 free (coupon code: BONUS DOLLAR)

I forgot where I read this but I thought it was a great idea! The more visitors I have, the more comment spam I seem to get! They especially like my post on:

Borat Coming To A Theater Not Near You

As a result, I’ve closed the commenting for that post. So that’s the tip, close the commenting for old posts. Very rarely do I receive a comment from an old post except for from spammers. So from now on if you are wondering why certain posts have comments closed, blame a spammer.

If you need to contact me about an old post, you can email me at kim @ this website or im me at dustofconfusion.

About 3 months ago, I came across a post through Digg. The article was titled: The Internet’s Biggest Google Whores and it was written by a guy named John Chow. In this article, it talked about the top 8 people who are earning the most money from Google Ads. The article was impressive and inspirational. I was surprised to learn the amount of money people can make from placing ads on their website! From this article, I discovered John Chow, a self proclaimed Dot Com Mogul and owner of the famous site TheTechZone. His personal blog, John Chow Dot Com, mainly focuses on giving advice and personal experiences about making money from the internet/blogging. He often uses his own website as an example and testing ground for the advice he dispenses. Not only is he extremely open and generous with his knowledge but all of the money he makes from his website is donated to charity. You would be surprised at how much money he’s made in a very short amount of time! Every month he does a recap of how much he makes with a thorough explanation of the hows and whys.

John Chow earns over 1K in October
and over 2K in November

All from putting ads on his website and blogging!!!

John’s goal is to get people like me and you to see how it can be done and that it is possible. Again, John Chow does not get anything out of this himself, at least monetarily, which makes his website that much more appealing to me. Right now, he is even allowing people to review his website, receive a linkback, and have a chance at winning a miniTvUSB!

His advice is indispensable. My favorite, and what I consider the most helpful blog posts about making money off of the internet, are:
So You Want To Be A Google Whore?
Two Tweaks To Generate More Traffic
My Top 10 Best WordPress Plugins
You can view his other popular posts here.

With this wealth of information at my fingertips, I decided to turn a somewhat inconsistent hobby (I have been blogging on and off since I’ve discovered the internet) and my passion for all things related to the Internet to something that can earn me some money at the same time. Although I can’t quote numbers even close to John Chow’s, I am no longer blogging for free and my counter has grown immensely from the days when I could count the number of people who visited my website on 1 hand.

So I haven’t quit my day job but at least all of my web hosting fees are taken care of, thanks to John Chow Dot Com.

With the winter season here, people are getting sick everywhere! I’m always weary when my coworkers or friends start getting sick because I know soon after I will probably get sick too. Contrary to popular belief, taking large amounts of Vitamin C does not help boost your immune system enough to keep you from getting sick. After much research, girlrobot brings you the best ways to prevent getting sick this winter season!

1. Avoid people who are sick. If your coworkers are sick, tell them to go home. If people you live with are sick, stay away from them and make sure they cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze. Also, avoid sharing towels, utensils, phones or anything of that nature with them.

2. Wash your hands. Alot. I even read it would be a good idea to keep a hand sanitizer nearby. This is probably the easiest and best way to keep yourself from getting sick. Wash your hands before touching your nose or mouth!

3. Keep your immune systems strong by eating healthy, sleeping regularly, and exercising.

I find it really hard to make time to work out…mostly because I’m lazy. And the fact that I am sitting at a desk for most of the day is bad news! Anyways, I just found an interesting article listing easy and quick exercises you can do throughout the day no matter where you are, sitting at the desk or even waiting in line. A few of my favorites were:

Seated Quad Shaper

Sitting at your desk, lift one foot off the floor approximately 8 to 10 inches. Hold your bent leg up for a slow count of 20, and then pulse your knee upward 20 times. When you finish the set, perform the same exercise with the opposite leg. Repeat this move several times daily.

Wait-in-Line Toner

While you’re on the phone or waiting in line, wrap your right foot around your left ankle and balance on one leg for 30 to 60 seconds. Pulse upward on the ball of your left foot for 20 counts. Now switch and work the other leg.

(hmmm, would I look weird if I was doing this while waiting in line?? hehe)

Cardio Shopping

Next time you go food shopping, hold a basket in your right hand for two minutes and then switch it to your left hand. Continue switching it back and forth until you’re ready to hit the checkout line. For an additional calorie burn, walk quickly up and down the aisles. You can also do alternate biceps curls with the basket.

Desk Curl and Chest Press

Sit at a desk on a chair with wheels. Lift your feet off the floor and grasp the desk in front of you with an underhand grip, pulling yourself to the edge of the desk and then pushing yourself back 10 to 15 times. Repeat the exercise placing your hands on top of the desk in a push-off position. The first move mimics biceps curls while the second position imitates chest presses.

See the full list here: 8 Easy Exercises You Can Do Anywhere