I recently won $100 Amazon gift card from one of the online contests and giveaways that I joined. Unknown to many, I love joining these contests, staying up late at night just to follow Twitter accounts, leaving blog comments, voting for so-and-so, liking Facebook pages and doing other similar stuffs that are usually required as entries in giveaways. And I’m so glad that my efforts paid off. This is my first win this year, yey!

I decided to splurge on some books during my recent shopping at Amazon. Most of the books that I bought are for Kindle however, I also ordered printed copies of two books authored by Michael Masterson (or Mark Morgan Ford). One is Automatic Wealth: The Six Steps to Financial Independence and the other is Power and Persuasion: How to Command Success in Business and Your Personal Life.

I actually was planning to buy a sewing machine because I wanted to start a new hobby but I decided to just buy one at a local store so that I can try it out. Since there’s not much you can buy with your $100 (blame inflation!), I figured books will be the best choice.

Have you ever joined and won online contests before? What was your prize? What did you do with it? Care to share in the comments section?

I have read about a product referred to as insulated concrete forming system that I would like to use on my dream home. With ICF, one can build reinforced concrete walls with built-in acoustical, fire and thermal protection.

Anyway, I recently saw a listing for a lot that I think is going to be a perfect spot for my dream home. It is almost 10,000 square feet big and I am already imagining my 2,500 square feet single story home in it. I am just in a dilemma because I do not know whether to buy the lot right away or apply for a construction loan first. I do not want to use up all my funds buying this lot but preparing all the stuff that will be needed for a construction loan will take some time.

Any suggestions?

I'm so happy right now! You know why? My cousin who is currently based in Reno, Nevada will be transferring here in Las Vegas.

Debbie is my first cousin and we grew up together because we're neighbors. Their family moved to Reno in the early 2000. Now, she has a job offer here in Las Vegas and I'm so excited that we can live next to each other again. I was actually inviting her to be my roommate but she wanted to have her own place.

Anyway, I helped Debbie find an apartment near our place using an online site called Apartments.com. I find this site easy to use and it provides a lot of information regarding the listings that they are providing in the results. You just need to enter the details (city, state or zip code) in their search box, hit the "Search" button and voila! you get the list of all the apartments that meet that criteria.

Among the information that the apartments.com site gives are the rent amount, deposit, bed, bathroom. square footage, the availability of the unit, features, amenities and utilities included. I love that it features the floor plan of some of the units (3D or 2D) and it shows the results of your search on a map.

Are you also looking for an apartment? You can visit the site by clicking at the "visit sponsor's site" link below. You can also follow apartments.com on Twitter at @aptscom. You can also download their mobile app in your iPhone, iPad or Android device so you can search on the move.

I am so excited the Debbie will be moving here to Las Vegas. Wait, I already mentioned that already, right? LOL!

I am referring to cureLauncher. It is an online community that raises money for various cancer treatments and medical research. It somehow serves as a bridge that connects private donors to medical researchers and doctors who are in need of funding for their respective world-class medical and technology projects.

Currently, cureLauncher’s website features Dr. Lee Roy Morgan and his research called DM-CHOC-PEN, a chemotheraphy drug for breast cancer that has spread through the lungs, brain or liver. They are hoping to come up with $10,000 for this project. Twenty sponsors already contributed $1971 to the project. With twelve more days to go, I hope more pledges and donations will be given to this worthwhile project.

Previous clinical trials featured at cureLauncher include testing a hormone with a drug to treat pre-clinical heart failure in Spokane, Washington and the pacemaker/defibrillator after heart attack trials at Texas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Georgia, California and Arizona.

Interested to learn more about cureLauncher and how they help our world? Well, you can visit their website now by clicking this link: cureLauncher.

What's your clothing style? Me? Well, I love to go for the chic and smart but casual look. Recently, I found out that just incorporating a colorful pair of tights or leggings into my wardrobe will definitely change the entire feel of my outfit by adding a new word to it: funl!

A while ago, I created an outfit collage at Polyvore.com and this is what I came up with:

What do you think? I love the total look and I can't wait to wear this attire someday.

In that collage, I added tights/leggings to my ensemble. What brand of tights? Well, I’m thinking of the No nonsense tights and leggings. I like them because they can be easily found not only at mass retail stores but at food and drug stores as well. Affordable too!

Lately, there’s a press release that Jill Martin will be partnering with No nonsense. Imagine that! The famous TV personality (she's been nominated thrice at Emmy!), fashion expert and author of "Fashion for Dummies" will become the brand ambassador and style expert for the launch of the new tights and leggings at No nonsense. Check out this video to see what I mean!

Hmm, that’s definitely worth watching out for right?! Well, let’s keep in touch with No nonsense via Facebook and Twitter to receive updates from No nonsense. Why not join me in liking No nonsense on Facebook and following them on Twitter at @benononsense. See you there!

A Year With Jesus

I love daily devotionals and this book “A Year With Jesus” is special because it gives you a chance to “listen” to Jesus words every single day. Jesus’ words directly quoted from the bible are shared daily, along with some reflections and insights that will comfort, inspire, challenge and encourage you because this book by R. P. Nettelhorst covers various topics including love, hate, truth, lies, arrogance, humility, good, evil and more.

Unlike the usual devotionals where the date is included, this book only labels each reading as Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and so forth. When you forget the day number, it’s hard to know which page to read (especially if you missed reading the book for a few days).

I would recommend this book to those who love reading daily devotionals.  It’s a bit thick (about one inch) and about 6″x9″ though, so it’s the kind of devotional that you’ll just have to read at home unless you have a big bag where you could place it.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book for free from the publisher through Booksneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. All the points and views are 100% mine.

But there’s hope.

Recently, I came across a site where you can get Free Facebook Likes! Actually it is some sort of exchange where you can get free Twitter Followers, Facebook Likes, Google Plus Ones, Youtube views and more by doing those tasks and earning credits for yourself (or your social networking profile).

The process is basically simple. Check out this image:

As you can see, after signing-up or joining the site, you just need to be logged in then follow and like social profiles or view videos and stuff. By doing that, you get credits which will give you the chance to get followers, likes and views as well. Cool right?

Something tells me that this year will be my most active year when it comes to social networking. I’m already excited to meet a lot of people online thru new fans, followers and likers.

Care to join me? See you there!

Four days to go and I’m still not finished with all my Christmas shopping! Oh, what a rush!!! I know that there’s more to Christmas than gifts (it’s about Jesus Christ, the ultimate gift that God has given us) but with lots of parties to attend to where we have this exchange gifts, I need to make sure I don’t forget buying gifts for everyone who I need to give presents to.

It’s a good thing that all the things that I bought online arrived this week. Now, I don’t have to wait for the postman or somebody from UPS or FedEx to arrive a day before Christmas like I did last year. The last one arrived from HeartRateMonitors.com this morning but boxes and packages from various websites such as Amazon, Tennis WArehouse, EBay, Tigerdirect and BestBuy had been arriving at my doorsteps for days already.

Yes, I love online shopping. And now that it’s Christmas season, a lot of websites are offering free shipping (yey!) so I love it some more.

Anyway, as I’ve said, I’m still not thru with my Christmas shopping. Those are the gifts that I intend to buy from shops this Saturday morning. Oh, I wish I could beat the Christmas rush – or somebody won’t be receiving his or her gift from Santa.

I am not an exemption to this group of individuals who thinks that new year is the best time to do something new. Whether it’s losing weight, starting a new hobby, traveling to new places, rekindling relationships – it seems that the new year gives everyone some kind of fresh new beginning with the hope of becoming a better person during the year.

This coming year 2013, I will be focusing more on my health. I’ll make it as a point to exercise at least 30 minutes daily. No excuses, no delays, no ifs and no buts. I’ll also cut back on those junk foods and turn to healthy foods and proper diet instead. Yeah, I might also try taking vitamins and probably some fish oil supplements to supplement my diet. And of course, I will have to make it as a habit to drink at least eight glasses of water a day.

How about you, do you also have some new year’s resolution for the coming year? Any targets or plans as to what you want to achieve in regards to your health? Hope you can share about them via the comments section.

You’ve probably heard of bonds, stocks and mutual funds because they are the more popular ways of investing money. Bonds are basically securities founded on debt. You buy bonds from government or entities and then they pay you interest and eventually the whole money that you initially invested on them. Stocks are, on the other hand, equities in companies. Among the ways to earn are from dividends or when the stock increases in value. Investing in mutual funds is like pooling your money with other investors wherein this fund is managed by a professional manager who picks bonds and stocks and other investments that will make up the investment portfolio.

Other methods of investing money are options, futures, foreign exchange or FOREX, gold, real estate and a lot more (I cannot enumerate them all here, of course).

Now, why do you think one should invest in gold coins (specifically American gold coins and gold eagle coins)? It is said that in times of economic instability and uncertainty, gold still remains as a valuable commodity. Its value doesn’t fluctuate as much as money’s value. For example, when the stock market crashed recently, stocks lost their value and those who invested in stocks are basically left holding an (almost) useless paper. This is not the case with gold since it still managed to keep its value. Even until now, it’s still increasing its value. Having gold among one’s investments is a good way to diversify one’s investment portfolio.

There are various companies and businessmen that sells golds and silver but you have to be cautious too when dealing with them and make sure that they are legit. Just like any investment decision, you have to do your research too in finding legit companies that sell gold and silver.

Great Southern Coins, for example, had certifications from PCGS, NGC, ANACS and ICG. They claim to be one of the leading internet coin dealers and have several auctions closing throughout the week. They had been trading on several different auction sites across the internet and pride themselves in the volume of coins they are able to offer to their customers.

Are you planning to invest? Which investment vehicle do you think is the most likely that you’ll invest in? Care to share your thoughts?