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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Straight Talk for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

It’s the middle of august and you know what that means – it’s “back to school” time.  Man, where did the summer go?  Time has just flown by.  Anyway, if you’re a parent, you’ve probably been making trips out to the stores lately to get the kids all their supplies for school.  Whether your kids are bound for college or middle school, don’t forget an important essential item for just about any back-to-schooler, the cell phone.  And I’m sure mom knows best and you’re probably considering simply adding a new line to your traditional cell plan but I’m here to tell you that there’s a better alternative.  I’m talking about a no-contract, prepaid plan through Straight Talk wireless.  Straight Talk provides everything you need from a wireless carrier without the long term contracts and those annoying extra tacked-on fees.  In terms of typical cell plans, you’re basically cutting that monthly bill in half with Straight Talk. 

Check out their unlimited plan – you get unlimited text, voice and web, all for just $45 a month.  That’s an amazing price especially when you consider how often today’s teens would text each other.  ugh, don’t get me started on that topic!  If you can get by with a little less, they offer a $30 plan which includes 1000 voice minutes, 1000 text messages and 30MB of data.  It’s definitely worth considering especially with all the money you’d save.

oh, and remember to call a friend and spread the word about Straight Talk.  In economic times like these, saving any amount of money is always a good thing. 

the minivan’s battery suddenly died on me. it’s interesting that with all of the cars I’ve owned (an acura, two hondas and a lexus), there’s never a tell-tale sign of when a battery will give out on you. the low-battery light on the dash never lights up to warn you that the battery needs to be changed out. never. I always end up finding out when I stick the key in the ignition and it fails to turn over. Well, I guess a good guideline is the age of the battery. For the most part I’ve noticed that the battery lifespan is around four to five years. So, I’m going to be pre-emptive and just change them out at the four year mark. It’ll be better than being stranded out in the middle of nowhere with no one around to give you a jump.

I’m guessing Netflix is closely monitoring what’s popular on their streaming service and augmenting their catalog accordingly. This would explain the new additions to their korean drama lineup. That’s right, more kdramas for us to enjoy via netflix streaming. (click this hyperlink to see my previous post about available kdrama titles)

Here’s a list of what Netflix added this week:

City Hunter – Yoon Sung — the son of a murdered government agent — begins working in the Blue House, the presidential residence in Korea. He tries to find the five men who betrayed his father 28 years ago, and makes a plan to punish them his own way. Cast includes: Lee Min Ho, Park Min Young, Lee Joon Hyuk, Hwang Sun Hee

Lie To Me – Gong Ah Jung, a Ministry of Culture official, gets caught in a web of lies when she claims she’s married to Hyun Ki Joon, a wealthy hotel manager. Their relationship is further complicated when Ki Joon’s ex-fiancée reappears in his life. Cast includes: Yoon Eun Hye, Kang Ji Hwan, Jo Yoon Hee, Hong Soo Hyun, Ryu Seung Soo

Goodbye Miss Ripley – Miss Ripley is based on true story of Shin Jeong Ah. Two very different men fall in love with Jang Mi Ri(Lee Da Hae), a woman whose life is a complicated web of lies, propelled by her greedy desires that stem from an unfortunate childhood. Cast includes: Micky Yoochun, Da Hae Lee, Kang Hye Jeong, Kim Seung Woo

Midas – This riches-and-romance drama set in Korea’s financial world follows the fortunes of Kim Do Hyun, a young man with big ambitions. The competing pressures of his professional activities and his upcoming marriage begin to complicate his life. cast includes: Hyuk Jang, Kim Hee Ae, Lee Min Jung, No Min Woo, Lee Duk Hwa, Kim Sung Kyum, Choi Jung Woo, Yoon Je Moon, Han Yoo Yi

Bad Boy – This thrill-packed Korean drama pits Geon-Wook against the Haeshin Group business empire and the powerful Hong family that owns the company. Geon-Wook’s obsession with revenge traces back to childhood and his rejection by the patriarch of the Hongs. Cast includes: Kim Nam Gil, Kang Soo Han, Han Ga In, Kim Jae Wook, Park Joon Mok, Oh Yun Soo, Moon Ga Young, Jung So Min, Jun Gook Hwan, Kim Hye Ok

So, spread the word and keep watching and hopefully Netflix will continue to expand their kdramas library.

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After seeing a write up on Batter Blaster in Forbes Magazine recently, I thought I’d check it out. I initially had a tough time locating the product until a friend of mine suggested looking in the refrigerated dairy aisle. And lo and behold, there it was. I was a bit taken aback with the price – $5 for a can that makes only 28 pancakes but I went ahead and got it anyway.

So, for those that haven’t heard about this – Batter Blaster is a pressurized canister of pancake batter. So, essentially a quicker and easier way of making pancakes without the hassle and mess of prepping pancake batter. So, the canister looks similar to a can of whipped cream. You press against the top nozzle and out comes the batter.

There was some trial and error involved in getting a good pancake made. Since the Batter Blaster is refrigerated, I had to lower the temp of the pan since the cold batter burned easily compared to normal batter. Also the batter was lighter and didn’t rise like regular batter. In fact, I had a tough time flipping these things because the batter was a lot more delicate and “airy”. So, my initial batch wasn’t much to look at. either they were burnt or deformed.

As for taste – I actually liked the taste of the batter but the texture was lacking. Some of mine were almost crepe like thin. But maybe that had to do with my technique. I’ve read afterwards that dispensing more batter in the center would make the pancake more substantial than dispensing in a spiral motion (which is what I was doing).

So how would I rate Batter Blaster? I’d give it a “C”. I probably need more practice in making these from a can dispenser. But factoring the cost of the product and the resulting pancakes, I’ll most likely stick to prepping my pancake batter the regular way.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Straight Talk for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’ve been using prepaid wireless service for years.  Way before it was accepted by the mainstream.  I mean, I had to endure weird looks from friends and colleagues early on whenever I told them I wasn’t under contract with any provider.  I guess folks have become so conditioned to the “two year contract” that they don’t realize that there are indeed other options in the wireless world. 

And I’m not one that likes to tell someone how to spend their hard earned money but come on, why would you opt for a contract based plan when a cell provider like Straight Talk can provide everything you need for a whole lot less and without the need of a contract.  You don’t need a degree in math to figure out that you can cut your monthly cell phone bill in half by going with Straight Talk’s Unlimited monthly plan which is only $45 per month.

Not only do you save a bundle switching to Straight Talk but you’re also utilizing the most reliable wireless network.  That’s right, Straight Talk is on the Verizon Network.  So, contrary to what you might think, going cheaper with wireless doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing quality.  Plus, with major manufacturers like LG, Motorola and Samsung working with Straight Talk, there’s a great selection of phones including some highly desirable smartphones.

So, with the amount you can save and also being on the verizon network, this Straight Talk deal should bring in the masses, hook, line and sinker.  It’s a no-brainer in my book.  Spread the word, call a friend, Straight Talk is definitely the way to go in terms of low cost cell service.

great. maintenance came around this week at work and replaced our “permanent” cubicle location/name plates with ones that can easily be changed out.

you know the ones where you can switch out the names with just a new piece of paper.

this sure doesn’t instill employee confidence here… I mean come on, is management expecting a rapid turnover of staff sometime soon? WTF.

job security, indeed.

So, I now have a total of three cell phones on Page Plus. Our main phone is the HTC Droid Eris on the 1200 Talk n Text plan. My personal cell is a LG Chocolate Touch (the wife’s previous phone from Verizon) on the pay as you go plan (currently I’m hoping to eek by with $25 every 4 months). And recently, I activated a LG Dare for my 14 year old. I purchased the LG Dare on ebay and proceeded to port my son’s cell number from Boost Mobile. I still hate the fact that there’s no easy way to get the actual “account number” from Boost except by calling customer service. I even tried emailing customer service via their website to try and get the “account number” without having to go through automated menu hell. But they emailed back and said that I had to CALL them to get the account number.

You see, you need the “real” account number (which isn’t your mobile phone number) in order to port your number out. Anyway, I ended up calling CS on my son’s old cell phone and navigated their confusing menu tree to get through to a live person. It took a while but I got through. Funny thing was that I didn’t have a great cell connection at the time and the CS rep couldn’t really hear me. I told him “that’s Boost Mobile for ya!!!”. ha, ha. that felt good. Anyway, I had to yell at the phone in order for the guy to understand what I needed from him and my wife, who was at the other side of the house, had to come over to check on me to see what the hell was going on. After repeating myself several times over the phone, the CS rep finally gave me the account number. sheesh. Obviously Boost makes this whole process difficult for a reason.

The interesting thing that I encountered with the LG Dare was that it was indicating that it was “roaming” when I turned it on. And since it was roaming I wasn’t able to perform OTA (over the air programming) on the phone. weird, I never encountered this problem before with my other phones. Now, in hindsight, I think by doing a hard reset, this problem might have resolved itself but at the time, I didn’t think to do a “hard reset”. So anyway, I had to manually set the home SID number in the phone via programming mode (##PROGRAM9700) in order for it to stop thinking it’s still “roaming”. I wasn’t really sure this would work but it actually did the trick (this was after hours of research on the net about this common problem). whew.

long story short, I’ve had a good experience on Page Plus so far. I’m pretty satisfied with the plans that they offer and the flexibility for all of us to “BYOP” (bring your own phone). And being on the Verizon network is definitely a big plus. Page Plus’ online interface for managing accounts is a bit antiquated but I guess it does the job. So, anyway, I’ll keep you posted on how things are on Page Plus in the future.

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I guess netflix heard my whining after all! Netflix is now offering a handful of Kdramas via streaming. On demand streaming is the perfect vehicle for episodic television programs especially soaps and Kdramas. I suppose Netflix is offering these particular korean titles on a trial basis to gauge popularity so Kdrama fans spread the word about these titles available on netflix. Honestly, I’m not a rabid kdrama fan that keeps up with the latest shows and such but I do enjoy catching some of these types of shows whenever time allows. Since these titles are a couple years old, regular kdrama viewers might be disappointed that there aren’t any “current” shows available. Just keep in mind that korean drama viewership make up just a small portion of Netflix’s total subscriber base so to have these titles available for streaming is a feat unto itself.

here’s what available so far (as of 20Jun11):

Boys Over Flowers (2009) – In this Cinderella story, Geum Jan Di is a street-smart, working-class girl who winds up at an exclusive prep school where she soon gains the attention of the F4 — big men on campus who literally rule the school and would love to rule Jan Di. Mixing drama, comedy and star-crossed romance, this Korean series is based on the popular manga “Hana Yori Dango,” the source of an anime series, live-action versions in Taiwan and Japan and a major film.

My Princess (2011) – When regular girl Lee Seol finds out she’s really a princess, she’s sent to the palace to learn about royal etiquette from Park Hae Young, a dashing young diplomat. But will budding romance distract them from their duties?Little girls around the world dream of being a princess someday. Penny pincher, Lee Seol wasn’t one of them, but somehow ends up as one. Instead of playing up the glamorous role of Princess, she’s stuck in the Palace studying. At least it’s with the handsome diplomat, Park Hae Young. But none if it matters because Lee Seol still can’t get over her crush on her Professor. Will Lee Seol change her country, find true love, and learn to be a Princess? Watch to find out!

Playful Kiss (2010) – Based on a Japanese manga, this Korean dramedy series centers on a slow-bubbling romance between a sunny student and her popular classmate, who doesn’t seem to share her amorous feelings — or does he?

Tamna the Island (2009) – Based on a Korean comic book, this televised drama follows a handsome young castaway named William, who flees England to escape a pending marriage and washes ashore on an exotic island with enchanting charms.

Road Number One (2010) – With war raging in 1950s Korea, Lee Jang Woo joins up with the army and leaves the woman he loves behind. But upon his return, he discovers she’s accepted another man’s marriage proposal.
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I’ve been feeling like a zombie these days – just walking around doing my day to day routine in a dull, monochrome haze.

I’m not sure how it all started… probably a gradual process over the years but I can tell the “spark of youth” has been totally sucked dry out of my being.

The days seem to go by with me not feeling a thing. Like I’m fully numb to the world around me. My brain is in continual “sleep mode”.

The passion is gone. no fire, no drive.

I’m in “autopilot” the moment I wake up ’til I drop into bed at night. what is it going to take to break me out of this comatose state???

why have I become such a passionless drone. perhaps it’s simply a defense mechanism to cope with all the disappoints in my life. How I’ve let myself down time and time again. my finances, my money-pit of a house, my so-called career, my social status, my friends, my hair loss (damn genetics) … all just one disappointment and another…

yeah, maybe living in this zombie-like haze is a good thing…

shit, what was I thinking. yes, we were hungry and didn’t have any plans for the evening but that shouldn’t have meant for us to head over to a chinese buffet restaurant that we weren’t all that familiar with. All I knew about the Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet over on Capital Blvd. was that it’s always busy with tons of families going in and out of that place. It’s located right next to a Sam Ash music store in a strip mall and whenever we had to go to Sam Ash for stuff in the past, I’d always notice how busy the buffet place was.

And if it’s a busy place, it’s gotta be good, right? Obviously not.

This place was disgusting. It’s a windowless, rundown restaurant full of customers there just to fill their face.

The wife and I have been more health conscious over the last year or so and have been losing a lot of weight lately. So, a buffet shouldn’t have been on our radar anyway. But we didn’t feel like going to the same old places tonight so we opted to go to this Buffet and boy are we regretting it now. yuck.

It’s your typical chinese buffet that also offers a hibachi style grill as well as sushi. everything was just “blah” with nothing really special that would explain why this place is packed day in and day out.

I just have to conclude that the average customer there don’t really give a shit about taste and simply wants a stuffed tummy.

My kids really didn’t seem to mind though. As long as they got their ice cream for dessert, they were happy.

whatever.

All I know is that I’m never going to set foot in that place ever again. What a waste of money…

excuse me now while I go throw up…