This is not the post you’re looking for….

Yes, I’m aware that everyone would really like to know what’s happen with my personal life, the not so new anymore boyfriend, leaving my job for four months, moving to France for that time … etc.  But tough… lol I don’t wanna write about that right now so neener (It’s my blog I’ll write what I wanna).

So today I went to dinner with Tony and Joel, and played a game after dinner.  Then rushed over to 3C, a local electronics store, to try to by a new laptop (netbook).  Now here is the things about 3C, they have this silly membership thing going on and then you supposedly get much better prices on electronics.  Now the reality is they are a little cheaper than many other stores, IF you get the member price (membership isn’t free mind you, you have to pay for it).  But if you don’t get the membership price then it ends up a bit more expensive than another store.

So every time I go there I play the stupid foreigner card, like I cruse up to the till and then seem deeply perplexed that the price isn’t as advertised.  They explain it’s due to the membership price and as I don’t have a membership I don’t get that price.  Now at this point I used to continue to play stupid and pout a little until they gave up and gave me the member price, but honestly I don’t have the patience for that anymore.  So, when they ask for my membership card I tell them I don’t have one, followed in the same breath with, but they always give me the membership price.

I do it so quick they usually don’t have anytime to think about it.. and merely blink a couple of times… say… “oh Zhan zhi? Uh.. Hao” Which basically translates to “oh, it’s like that? Uh.. ok”.  They look a little unsure for a second and then completely fold like a house of cards in a stiff breeze.  😀  On occasion I run into a hardass or a wannabe hardass who is a stickler for the rules, at which point I just point out that I don’t have to buy my things here and if they can’t be co-operative I won’t.  They almost always cave then, honestly I think in ten years there has been one occasion where I just left the store not buying anything… and simply went to another of their stores (it’s a huge chain).

On occasion they have very good prices and especially after Chinese New Year, you know how after Christmas back home they clear out old stock, same deal here just it happens after Chinese New Year I guess.  Anyway They have a web page that they guy at the store showed me and I spend a bunch of time pootling about on there.  www.tkec.com.tw, it’s actually pretty good if you read Chinese or your browser translates for you.

I was supposed to buy my new computer (a new small laptop) in France because Regis found a some really good prices online in France.  But the computer that I wanted went up in price in France and dropped here.  So VOILA I get a new toy right now! Win.

As I said I went to 3C and unfortunately they didn’t have the exact model I wanted new, so I could have a display model or get a new one a little bit less pimp (sniffle) and save 3000nt (hundred dollars Canada).  But again it’s the membership price, but I rolled over him right at 10pm (just as they were closing) and just informed him that I always get the member price. DONE.  And I got an extra 1000 nt off (well actually the price online was 1000 less than the posted price in the store), WIN.  And when I asked at the original store they told me that it would cost 1500 to upgrade the ram from 2gig to four gigs, but this guy upgraded my ram to 4gigs for only an extra 600nt.  So that means, 10999 plus 600 for a total of 11599 yay, WIN.  That ends up being 3600nt (120cad) cheaper than the computer was going to cost me in France, for a computer that’s a bit better (slightly upgrade CPU, bigger hard drive).

I love getting a deal, possibly more than I love having new toys.  So I get double joy here, new toy to play with and I totally scored a great deal.  Tralala.

Ok it’s Friday which means that a few things are open now and I need to run around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything done.  😀  Hopefully will post again this weekend.

Dreaming of Seth Godin

Do you ever wonder what it is like to be Seth Godin, or anyone else that people listen to?  I read three pro blogs, Seth’s, Tim Ferriss‘, and another dude named Chris… and the last continually reference Seth’s blog.

I mean this guy is spitting out thoughts, pearls, ideas etc.  And yeah they are good and interesting, but a lot of them aren’t all that earth shattering.  Many times myself and many other ‘unimportant people’ have said the same kind of things, sometimes actually the same thing.  But no one noticed or cared, but when Seth says it everyone sits up and takes notice.   When Seth writes something, millions of people take note, read refrence, and share the information.  Look at his blog, hundreds of people like each post on Facebook, they share it on twitter they comment.  Hundreds, nay,  thousands of people check in each day just to see what he has said.

When I write something ‘ones’ of people… nigh on ‘tens’ of people sit up and go hmm interesting.  Not that I mind all that much, but sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be Seth Godin.  To be someone that people listen to and respect just for who you are and what you say.  🙂

Urban Legends Will Never Die

Modern urban legends, do you buy into them?  Do you perpetuate them?  Do you believe them?

There are so many of them these days… help the girl kidnapped… twitter updates, facebook is raping your privacy, or they are going to start charging you money to use their service…

I shake my head.   Recently a load of people have been mass updating about the searchability of Facebook on Google… it’s not new.. it’s old.. I know because I changed the settings ages ago.  Yes Facebook changed something recently.. and updated every user about it.  If you ignored it then whose fault is that???   Anyway.. a couple of people in Taiwan kinda got into a bit of a ‘conversation’ about it… and I just couldn’t resist.  Here is a the pertinent part of what I wrote.

(she had mentioned people stalking and using facebook to find your personal information .. look up you address etc. ) In Taiwan???  You know there are no white pages here right…. honestly, you’re getting overly excited.. all the searchability on FB isn’t new… you’re just discovering it… I have known about it for ages… stalkers are much more low tech they just chill outside your house and learn what they want.

You need to understand ALL of this information is rea

Online/Offline & Socially Accepted Behaviours

So I have concluded that the preconceptions, protocol and rules for behavior online where written about ten-15 years ago when most of us got online.  Really it probably mostly started for you the day you downloaded msn.  (unless you started out with ICQ like us cool kids 😉 if you’re cooler and started earlier… shutty)

Back then most, if not all, folks where on dial up.  You couldn’t just hang out online, because it tied up your phone.  Even if you got a second phone line, which most of us did as we got more into the internet, you still paid for how long you were online and the information transferred.  It wasn’t a flat fee, and even if you had a flat fee it was just slow… hella slow.  Computers were slow the internet is slow.

But it was all we knew.  So sitting in front of a box for 6 hours TRYING to do stuff online compared to the fact we could get it all done in 20 mins now, was a bit of a waste of time.  Even in uni where most of us were plugged into internet so fast that it puts most of your ADSL to shame and online 24-7, we still didn’t hang out around the computer for long periods of time.

So ‘back in the day’ when we all got online but didn’t really hang out there, online meant something different.  You were there with intent.  You turned the computer on, went online and were looking for and expecting others to pl

The Power of Porn

Do have any idea how much porn has changed the world?  What kind of control and effect it has had on the modern world, consumer products and a million other things?

What really decided who won between Betamax and VHS?  Why did Blue Ray win that contest?  Why do all DVD players have a multi-angle viewing button?  Why can we send and receive pictures on our phones? Why is suddenly so important to have 3G phones?  Camcorders… digital cameras, payper view, satellite and cable tv, the internet.. the list goes on and on.

Porn.. porn (and sex) is one of the leading driving forces behind a lot of technological advances.  Now this won’t come as much of a surprise to some people, but I think a lot of people will be at least a little surprised.

Did you know that the reason VHS became the primary technology was NOT actually because Sony wouldn’t let anyone else use the technology.  It was due to the porn industry choosing VHS as the platform on which to produce their films because it was cheaper for them to produce.. and suddenly.. loe all kinds of people had a VHS player (why buy the expensive one that won’t play your sexy films on it??)

Don’t believe me?  Do you own a DVD player?  Go check the remote.  Does it have ‘cha

Teaching Sells, does it?

So at the urging of a close friend I signed up for an online marketing sales type course called Teaching Sells.  And there is a lot of interesting information and more importantly teachers and a network of other people trying to do the same things as I am.  Making money online, with blogs marketing, membership sites etc.  This network is good because people help you brainstorm, help encourage you when your down and give advice when your feeling lost and confused.

Sounds great right?  Well what’s the catch?  It’s not free (obviously), and it’s a little expensive.  Don’t get me wrong, in the grand scheme of things it’s not, but it comes to about $2000 and it feels a little steep, perhaps I’m just cheap but it feels heavy to me.  On one hand, ouch right… but on the other, all this information is nicely packaged so you don’t have to sift through the crap, plus there are people involved whose whole job is to help you make this work for you.  Besides, if you have nothing riding on it, what is there to push you forward and MAKE you do it?

Perhaps some of you just have the ambition and

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

Dude I love this movie, it’s all old like (1989)l, but Richard Prior and Gene Wilder… Classic!  I just watched it again… giggled my self silly.

Now I’m totally having a hankering for more of these kinds of movies like, the 1988 awesomeness “Coming to

People of Walmart! AWESOME

Omigod omigod omigod.. so I was going to bed, but I can’t I have to do this first as a matter of fact I actually pushed a couple of posts back just to put this up right now!

Eric Martin (my friend with the gaming blog) posted this link on Facebook.  He is an evil man… EVIL I have been giggling like an epileptic retard with a chocolate cookie and a flashy light.

I’m just disappointed there isn’t a pie cooling while they shop.

You really must go check it out… I picked some choice ones (ooh earthquake) and added their captions bellow them.  But really it’s totally worth taking a little gander through the site.  ha!!!  http://www.peopleofwalmart.com  seriously… best find in ages!

Weel, lets all be thankful that at least half is covered

Wow having another look it appears the site is very new, the first post (picture) is from August 28th.   Sigh i wish I could get this much traffic this fast, then again my blog while

Not a Pro Blogger…. Yet (Part 2)

Continued from last time…

• Paragraphs and Spacing.  It seems obvious and trivial, but I have had to point it out to almost every ‘new’ blogger I know.  Just having paragraphs doesn’t cut it, make sure there is a space between each paragraph.  Also try break big ass paragraphs up a little into more digestible pieces, it makes actually reading more palatable.
• Don’t have music, sound, or video play automatically.  You might think it’s neat but it’s very irritating when you go to the page and have to search for the off button for the sound, especially if you are not at a private computer.

• Buy a domain name.  You don’t have to, but if you’re serious about your blog you should consider it.  You can just be lazy like me and just have it forward to your existing blog, but it still makes it super easy for people to remember and find your blog.
• Learn about keywords, Tags, and Categories.  The oversimplification is that tags are what search engines use to search, and Categories are more contained sections of your blog. See [here] for a better explanation on the issue. Learning about key words [here].
• If you have something to say, say it don’t save it.  Too many times you think, wow this is a great topic I should

Not a Pro Blogger…. Yet (Part 1)

This post contains:

• Some updates and information on blogging
• usual Magda chit chat
• Some links to interesting and relevant materials/people
• Some of what I have learned so far about better blogging (at the end.. I wanted to move it to the beginning but it just didn’t work with the flow :D)
• These are what I have found to be true, they are not rules.  If something doesn’t ‘work’ for you then don’t do it 🙂

Well I ever be? Perhaps.   I’m looking into it because my big goal right now is to get paid for the things I am already doing and like doing.  One of those things is my blog.

Side bar… completely ironic that I’m little miss bloggy pants as I only got my original blog under pain of smacking.  Tracey had one, as an alternative to emailing everyone while traveling, and it really is a better alternative.  You write it, and they come to read it, instead of slamming people’s in-boxes with massive email updates.  I was

Windows & Computer Woes

BAH…  computers are all fine and dandy as long as they are working fine.  But as soon as they are not..  Welcome to the land of frustration and irritation.

I hate windows, I hate Microsoft.. I swear they deliberately make their software suck on purpose.   I mean can it really be an accident that it fucks up as much as it does?  GRRRR   So my machine has been a little off lately, so I decided to re-install windows… but windows.. for whatever reason won’t update.  Since it won’t update.. even on automatic updates or going to the site.. there are all kinds of little things that won’t work properly.

Now I could just ‘suck it up princess’ and use it as is… but that’s what I did on my last install and it continued to have aggravating little problems.  Honestly, I am seriously considering switching to linux and anyone who knows me knows how serious that is.  I hate change, I hate learning a new system.  I’m comfortable and I know how windows works, it’s honestly the primary reason I loathe Macs (and I want to step on their shiny little screens).

But right now I’m so fed up and pissed off at windows…. seriously I could fucking scream.  The worst part is, I’m sure it’s all my own

MY Stuff got Stoled…

And I blame Drew’s Cancer…  http://www.blamedrewscancer.com

Ok I don’t but that’s something different.

So I’m so mad.. at myself and the fucker who broke into my bike and stole my Camera and all my cash.  Now I am aware it could have been worse… much worse.   I mean just in the ‘grand scheme of things’ things could always be worse.  But also My credit card could have been in there (it’s not because I’ve learned not to do that again… I never carry my credit cards in Taiwan), I could have NOT taken my Palm Pilot with all my Chinese on it, and my Ipod out of my bag.  I could have not gone back and gotten my phone (before someone broke in).  They could have taken my whole wallet cards and all, (although there is one card missing.. and I can’t for the life of me figure out what the card was… not a bank card, ID, Licence, ??? maybe there was nothing there but it looks oddly empty) They could have stolen my bike, my $200(USD) Motorbike Helmet….  and so on.  They (as best as I can tell) only took my Camera and Cash.  They did steal my tiny water bottle… (really.. wtf??)

So why am I so upset?  Because this is not the first time I’ve have stuff stolen, out of my bag/bike.  AND I had a funny feeling and I Ignored it… I’m so SO FUCKING mad at myself…   That and I didnt’ even want to

Dear Apple, you suck

I have never been an apple fan.  And while I wasn’t about to jump ship to the mac wagon, I had let go of some of my dislike.

Oh it’s all back.  Reasons I want to step on ‘Apple’s” proverbial head.  1) Apple users are obnoxious (meh meh meh apple is so much better… Well I’ve used it and I don’t agree.. and that makes me a moron?? really?  Bite me)  2) Apple (in spite of what crazy apple people seem to think) cares no more about you than any of the other big bastards.  If your shit breaks.. guess what it costs twice as much to fix it than to buy a new one.  3) You’d think a company as big as apple would have some fricken staff on hand to answer questions if you need help… WRONG instead you just get swung around a fancy little dance of automated service… and if you don’t call during US business hours you’re SOL.  (shit out of luck).

What you don’t have customers in other countries??? REALLY…. You’re customer service sucks…. getting any answers off of you site sucks…  And your products are becoming more and more ‘disposable’  You don’t even seem to want them to work for more than a year… since you put out a replacement product every year or so and your CRAP break right around that time.. you know once the warranty has run out.   Even just replacing the battery, THE BATTERY, usually costs more than a new product.  At least in Taiwan I can just go

Better Facebooking 101

Everyone seems to have stopped bitching about the changes to Facebook, but after speaking with many friends it’s apparent that most people haven’t discovered the good changes.

Honestly, before the changes I almost never did anything on Facebook, because I often didn’t see the people I wanted and there was too much ‘stuff’ to shift and sort through to find things that I found interesting. Plus they use that little algorithm to judge who you are close to and show you more of their updates, but it’s not always accurate.

So I made this video that Kinda sucks, if I’m being honest, to break down what I do now. I only spend a few mins checking updates and making comments, I see everyone I want to, and I’m WAY more

Google… WTF?

So I went to Google something and I was curious as to why Google was written in Morris Code today.. I was so distracted by the search to find out why that I totally forgot what it was that I went there to search for.. (oh yeah it was the Simpsons couch gag thing!)

I ended up on a couple of sites that show a billion live twitter updates as they happen live… and while that was interesting, it was also COMPLETELY useless…   I did end up finding a useful link {here} that explained that it’s because it is the dude who invented Morris Code’s birthday today.

That will be all 🙂

Have the Google Gods Deamed me Worthy?

Dude.. wtf is going on… Ok I am generally a skitch confused by the fact that my blog gets anywhere from 20-50 hits on a normal day.  But to add mystery to the pot recently, I’ve been getting MAD traffic on my blog…

I’ve decided I really need to sign up for Google insight to see where these hits are coming from, because as I was discussing with Casey the other day, the blog stats that WordPress provides are interesting but not particularly insightful. They tell you all kinds of fun things like how many hits on the blog, how many clicks on each post, what links people follow to arrive at your blog, what search terms they used to get there.. but the numbers just don’t add up.  And they don’t tell us where the hits are coming from, being rather international what countries these hits are coming from would be of great interest to me.

Recently, I’ve been getting MAD hits on my blog.  Acording to the information they provide me with .. these hits are coming from Google or Google type searches for the word ‘fail, or epic fail’.  Which is funny because they are all going to an old blog post that was just about me being suuuper lazy one day and failing in the doing anything department.  Now don’t get me wrong the whole Epic failure thing is amusing, hence I pull picture off the net for it.. but I can’t begin to

Contacting Random people is fun :)

Ages ago a friend mentioned having met this woman named Tristan Taormino, who is this sex author guru type person.  I ended up looking around on her site [puckerup.com] and reading a bunch of stuff about her and thought gee she seems mighty interesting I think I’ll write to her.. you know just on a whim… Saying I though it was cool that she was so confidant and that while I may not agree with all her principals that I found her work and what she seemed to be trying to do interesting.   well wouldn’t you know it she wrote back to me

Hi Magda!

I’m sorry I’m late in replying…the past week or two of travel have had me running!  I wanted to say thank you so much for your wonderful email.  It’s so important for us all to have an opportunity to learn and grow, and to explore things about ourselves and our sexuality – when we know what we enjoy and we can embrace it, we can truly start to live life to it’s fullest.  I’m honored by your compliments, and I’m glad that you found out about my work!

Well that was fun, I just wrote for a giggle and look I got a reply… so then a couple of days ago I say this story about some guy who sued google and won.. (rara little guy!!) And after reading that I came across something that indicated he was the same guy that is in some dispute with Facebook (over who’s idea it really was).  So again I think.. hm might be fun to drop this guy a line…  here’s a clip from my email to him

I read your blog post about suing goggle… and I have to say AWESOME.  While I use Google a 1000 times a day I have always said that as long as things are running smoothly, great.. but if you ever hit a problem with Google.. you’re fucked because they have no one to contact and no matter how hard you try any attempts to get and answer or help leave you frustrated and alone.

And would you believe it, he wrote back to me.. on the same day no less…

Magda,

Thanks for your very amusing e-mail. I enjoyed reading it.

It’s true, I do have a bit of a difference of opinion with Facebook, Inc. I’m just glad the one with Google is resolved.

All the best,

Aaron

Aaron Greenspan
President & CEO
Think Computer Corporation

Moral of the story… I doubt there is one.. I just thought it was fun that I wrote to these very random, likely busy people and they took the time to write back to some random girl.  🙂

I love Danny Choo :)

He puts up the most entertaining things :).

Check out the new piece of shit from Sony… oh good times and giggles.

ok.. so now I’m amusing my self on the onion 😀  I so know people who need this one.. LOL

Plus via a video and link that Danny posted I finally got to rick roll someone… and it was so someone ‘internet’ who didn’t see it coming… happy dance…  Funny thing is I like the song lol so I enjoy it when it happens 😛

I started it, as usual.

Generally speaking most of my friends and family are pretty playful and silly… but I can really bring it out of people… unintentionally and un-plotted usually…

Basically what happens is I get MAD silly and it’s so much fun everyone joins in .. tee hee (I think my favourite part is Dee always escalates it so it looks like it was her fault.. (and so much more fun too.. it’s no fun if no one plays!) but I’m usually the one who started it…. remember the Christmas roll fight? LOL Mom totally knew it was my fault, but your kids where

Web: Pandora Music Genome Project

I don’t know if you have heard of Pandora, but it’s been around for a few years and it’s awesome possum! The only shit thing is you can only access the blurry thing from the United States (and possibly Canada, Those of you in Canada let me know).

Essentially what it is, is an online radio station. But what makes it mad cool is you enter a song title, album name, or artist name and then it compiles a series of songs that are of a similar sound. You can make it more specific by adding more songs, titles, or artists to a single station. It chooses songs with similar style and similar artists and plays them for you, from there you click “I like it” or “I don’t like it”.

On top of playing that song more or never again it helps the program understand your

I want a MAC book Wheel!!!!

I know I know .. surprise surprise… I’ve never been a fan of laptops. And I have always professed my loathing of Mac’s especially. But that was before! I guess I was just waiting for them to come up with the right product. As many of you know I’ve been shopping for laptops, and I thought I had found the one I wanted it was an ASUS, but .. no no I had no idea until I saw this puppy.

Everyone always talks about the innovations and amazing products that Mac comes up with, and I’m finally on board. I’m going down to the Mac store and see if I can get one on pre order, I don’t need my laptop for a few months anyway.

Check out this story that was on the news to see all the wicked features, they’ve really out done themselves this time! Oh and I want to thank Danny Choo for posting this on facebook. AWESOME… (Danny Choo is the Dancing storm trooper in Tokyo).

You guys better get in line to pick one of these up they are going to be

Die Nigga Die: public execution style

So my friend made a video and I didn’t get to it right away because I was busy all day. When I watched I thought, hmm that’s interesting let go watch the news story….

Now I’m sitting here in total shock… I just watched someone get shot… honestly it looked more like a mafia execution than anything the police should even think about being being anywhere near. What the hell are the police for??? I have always known that there are messed up people where ever you go. And it’s pretty common knowledge that, while American cops have a difficult job, they far too frequently just go to violence to solve an issue.

A friend of mine (Canadian) was cycling from Vancouver to California with a group, they had special permits to be cycling on this freeway (that normally they couldn’t be on). Long story short they were attacked and beaten by the police for CYCLING. Many of the group were injured and terrified, they dragged off their bikes, some were thrown to the ground, others still were

Did you know?

My aunt sent this video (it’s down at the bottom) to me ages ago and I thought it was really cool.. but for some reason I never put it here on my blog.. Honestly can’t think of why not. I’m assuming that for some reason it just never occured to me.

Anyway I can across it again today via another friend and though hey.. it would be cool to put on here… to be honest I didn’t even find most of it shocking, especially as I often go on rant on incredulous-ness at the leaps in technology in the last 3-5 years… I mean you can get an SD card with 32 (and I’m pretty sure) 64 Gigs, I have a Micro SD card with 2 gigs of space that is the same size as my pinky fingernail. My phone that was some seriously PIMP shit a year and a half ago is practically an outdated brick. My Ipod which is only a year old.. was more expensive than the new one that is cheaper with double the features and memory. WTF…

I have always disliked laptop computers because I never saw the point, yes they are convenient if you move your computer but how often do you really NEED to do that? And at double, triple or even quadruple the price for half of the speed and capabilities.. why the hell would

Web: Shack up with the TV

So I don’t know how many of you watch TV, I am assume most if not all. A friend of mine, the wonderful Melissa, found this site and told Tracey and I about it.

Not my Screen.. 😛 I wish!

The site is TVshack.net, and it has hundreds of shows and episodes to watch for free. To take full advantage you really need to have a fast internet connection, but other than that it works like a charm. You just cruise around looking for the show you want, clickity click and BAM.. you have showage!

Beats waiting for the shows to download.. most of the time anyway. Sometimes I prefer the files on the computer, the resolution is better when