A Quest for the perfect pillow

I have about 5 pillows and I feel very uncomfortable sleeping at night...been waking up with neck pain, and this contributes to my pillows all being very stiff (they are all poly pillows). Long ago I used to have a down pillow, and I loved it! However, I had allergies from my beloved down pillow ALL THE TIME, and had to take Claritin every freakin night before bedtime. And after they showed on TV all the bugs and strange creatures that live in down pillows, it had to go.
 Thus, my frustrating search for the perfect pillow that will not be too stiff, nor too impossible to bend/shape, and hopefully one that is healthy for you.

1. Tempurpedic Pillow. It sucks. Er, I mean I give it 3 stars out of 5. I got it for Christmas for $50 at the mattress shop on the corner, and it looked very fancy. What I like about it: Tempurpedic feels way better than any of my Poly Pillows, so it's currently the only one I can sleep on. Poly Pillows don't deserve to be on the list at all, because they didn't earn any stars from me (ZERO for support, and negative points for being inflexible and horribly stiff). What I don't like about it: The shape is not helpful, it is just too stiff for my neck, and yet I don't feel "support" from it so I end up bending it and torturing it until we are both so tired of fighting that we fall asleep.

Bethenny Frankel's new Book - A PLACE OF YES

While shopping at Target last Tuesday, I have put a few teeshirts back and decided to buy this interesting, and eye-catching book by Bettheny Frankel, the bitchy housewife of New York. It's called "A place of YES".  I am re-reading it now for the second time, as the book is hilarious, but sometimes it makes you wanna cry. Her book is not so much about how you can "visualise yourself rich" or "the power of positive thinking" - instead it teaches to follow your gut and ACT quickly, how to live your dreams and be unafraid of failure. I had no idea, but Bethenny had this strange idea that she wanted to bake cookies without preservatives (a major selling point) and sell them. Apparently, selling cookies without preservatives was also a fatal flaw in her plan - honestly, I wouldn't care if they had preservatives or not, but apparently, this was a matter of principle.
SO...For many sleepless nights she spends working her ass off and slaving away in the kitchen, trying to lift off a failing business, and then she keeps going...and going...and going. Despite things going awry all the time. What DOES keep her going? Why doesn't she give up? (I would have given up after the first cookie crumbled) Where do you get so much strength?
Of course, she also has more successful ventures, and gets her life back in order, but that's not what gets me. Bethenny has this drive to "follow your truth" and never back down. I find that very inspirational. It reminded me of Davy Crockett, there's just this strength of character, the YES that comes from within, not outside. It's not a YES from the Universe. It's not a YES from your parents. It's not even a YES from your boyfriend.
Best to you in Happiness, Money, and Love and always say YES to be your best!

SIMS: MIDIEVAL IS HERE!!!!

Sims: Midieval is finally here! My Sim, Queen Alpha, has hired an advisor (by using a pigeon to send off a hire letter), and started building barracks. Although she is suppose to be a very classy Queen, Alpha eats with her hands - I kid you not! When you start your game, you select your Sim's traits like in a regular Sims game - but this time, you are required to select one "flaw" of character. Alpha's is "CRUEL" - so she will slap people, and hurt them in more ways than one :)
Last week, Lady Alpha ventured off to the town's square and also went to market to buy a new sword and some food. Suddenly, a woman comes crying to her, that she has been bullied. Queen Alpha immediately arrests the offender. Then she decides to throw eggs in tomatoes at her, while bursting off in laughter:

Bullies in MY kingdom?! I shall not allow it!

Law of Attraction

Today, I will not be reviewing anything for the lack of time, but here's a note of inspiration. I just recently discovered the Law of Attraction after watching The Secret movie on my NETFLIX (thank you, Universe!) and today, I am posting a really cool, and short video about it on YouTube.

How to manage MONEY: make life easier! iPhone APPS that help.

Life. Easier than Auto Pay!

Having hard time tracking expenses like me? If you own iPhone or iTouch, there are APPS that can help you feel much more organized and better about finances. I downloaded 5 , no 6 highly rated apps on my iTouch, but mind you, there are far more to download and review :) So if you own/use one that you feel is better, feel free to email me your own review!

Criteria. First off, I am not easily swayed by UI that is b-e-a-u-tiful. I am looking for an app that is easy to use and does the job done.


1. PAGEONCE.  
I removed Pageonce from my list, because it was not what I was looking for. It was very similar to Mint.com, where you have to be brave enough to enter your bank accounts, usernames, and passwords into corresponding graphs. Honestly, I don't even trust myself with that information.
On to the review. Can I finally be happy? Now, I will be able to track my daily spending and have the ability to backup/sinc with my computer.

1. Ace Budget. - 4,5 stars out of 63 ratings- Ace was very 1st app that I downloaded. In order to organize better, I needed to know, how much was my income, and how much did I have on my cards/bank accounts. So, just about an hour before posting this, I went to the bank. A scary moment for me, because I not only have a crazy amount of expenses, but also an unhealthy spending habit. PG&E bill is scheduled for 03/11 this month. AT&T charged me a whopping $112 for the 1st month, and will adjust to $30 per month starting next month. 03/15 is for T-Mobile. Its not on autopay, so I realize that I don't even know when is it due. (Apparently I am late, it was due on 3/15). And $200 for tutor. Not to mention gas for the car (about $20/3 days), bridge toll ($6/day), and food (God knows! I hadn't tracked this one, yet, but I know this is going to be a huge one).
2. Expensense. It was rated 5 stars, but only had 25 ratings. I was a little wary downloading something this new, because it might need to forego updates and minor tweaking/fixes - a common thing for new apps. From the "fairly new" budget apps, there was also Budgetcare and iMoneytracker, which only had 6 reviews, so I did well with Expensense. OK so Expensense is a beautiful software. To enter Recurring events though, you need to enter them separately, rather than just check a "recurring option", which to me is a waste of my time.

VIrtual Worlds and what they are all about

My Sim, who is a cook, just came home from work and is checking her email.

Hey there. Last time I talked about different Blog platforms, out of which I liked Blogger and Tumblr the most. SquareSpace was also one of my faves, but it was a paid platform, so it lost out in the competition. I believe for $8/a month, you should be able to get "content", such as powerful graphics and videos, not just a platform - but that's just my humble opinion!

Moving on to today's topic, Virtual Worlds.

I don't know about you, but there's something captivating about being enthralled into a virtual space of wealth, beauty, and wishes-come-true. I have discovered 5 that are out there, my favorite being Sims 3. They are:
1.SIMS 3. It costs anywhere from $30-$60 and there's XBox and PC versions available for immediate download. I have both.
You might know Sims from downloading it on your iPhone/iTouch, but Sims are quite a journey! It's not fast paced, the world of Sims is whatever you create or whatever your alter ego desires to be. You can create a family/household, get married, have kids, and even have them grow up right away. You can have unlimited wealth. You can travel the world. You can learn "skills", such as cooking, fishing, and more. You can encounter death, Grim Reaper, vampires and ghosts. And, with "Medieval" version almost here, (you can pre-order it and get a free "Stuff's pack"), it's a make-me-happy game! One factor you should be aware of though, is Sims is not a social platform, so you don't get to meet "real" people - which makes it fairly safe for your kids to play!
2.SECOND LIFE. Oh.My.Gosh.

Blogging

Life. There's ALWAYS a choice

I decided to choose the right Blogging platform for me. I will post my initial impression and will follow up in a bit. So according to Lifehacker site, the 5 best platforms are:

1. Blogger. Web/Free. My site on Blogger. I opened a Blogger and right away, had problems with it, because I couldn't login for some reason(Maybe it's because I don't have a gmail account). After I "reset password" I proceeded to get into the "dashboard", and there was a big collection of blog templates (none of which I liked nonetheless). The basic templates were not very professional looking, even after I looked into "Business" backgrounds, I felt they were too busy, and the business templates from the previous versions of Blogger were gone. For some reason, the themes appear to be made to "look cute", and I don't want be cute. So I chose a plain, but seriously ugly one, with the black background - here you can see my non-cute Blogger web child in action! (There will be Adult Content warning before you enter the site, which I like). But don't let the initial ugliness scare you away. Editor in Blogger really rocks! To insert link, just click "Link" and the link magically appears. My text autosaves every few minutes, so I am not afraid to lose my text due to power loss, for example. Insert "Jump Break" -  I am guessing it's a "Read More" break. Neat! Overall, there's TONS of options in Blogger. So much to think about! I turn Comment Moderation on, to avoid spam, and I set Adult Content to On. (Who knows, I am an Adult after all). Let the bloggings begin.
2. Tumblr Web/Free. My site on Tumblr. One word: easy! I didn't feel lost, because the site kept taking me through steps of signup very quickly! I didn't see the templates yet, but the ones I was offered were paid content, so I opted out. The site looks clean and professional, so I continue on. OK, so one thing I am not sure with Tumblr is