Memes sometimes make me laugh. But this one was post worthy because I like Little Mermaid. And Ariel as a hipster is funny

Zombie tablet of course refers to the hp TouchPad, the tablet that won’t die! Ever since I was unable to get my hands on one during the first fire sale, I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for a good deal. I didn’t want to deal with another hp laptop/pc with the Best Buy deal, and I’m glad I didn’t hold out for the refurb fire sale from last night since chances of snagging one might’ve been slim (they sold out in 15 min). From what I’ve read, a lot of people seemed to be pretty happy with the tablet and at that price point who could complain. I’ve been checking Craigslist off and on to see what deals I could get. Most people are selling to make a ridiculous profit but I was looking to get as close to breaking even as possible. Luckily I found one last week and I picked up a deal for a 32gb TouchPad with a case and Touchstone charging dock (love this thing) leaving the seller without much of a profit (but it’s ok, he didn’t seem like he needed more money anyway haha). From the few days I’ve had with it so far, here’s what I love about it:

- True web browsing experience: no formatted for mobile webpages here. Almost everything works and shows as it should, including Flash. But the big sites that I was hoping for, Hulu and Netflix, don’t work since Hulu got wind of it and Netflix just isn’t supported by the webOS browser yet. But it’s ok, I found an awesome workaround which works beautifully (Splashtop).

- True multi-tasking: Waiting for something to load? Let it load in the background while you do something else… and it will.

- “Synergy” lets you add an account in one place (like Gmail, Facebook, Skype, etc) and then links whatever appropriate apps to them. Mail gets your Gmail, Calendar accesses your Google Calendar, Photos will pull your Facebook albums, QuickOffice can see your Google Docs, etc.

- Transferring files to the TouchPad is as easy as transferring to an external hard drive. No need for iTunes-like software so transferring is a breeze. I’ve transferred eBooks (in pdf format) and videos so far. And for those curious, video files need to be mp4 format (I think like iTunes?)

- Exhibition mode: This kind of also goes for the Touchstone charging dock which allows for wireless charging for the Touchpad. I just plop that puppy on there and it starts charging and while it charges it goes into ‘exhibition mode’ where it shows me the time, my agenda, the weather, etc, whichever exhibition-capable app I choose to view.

- Mail app is very similar to iOS’s mail, but has collapsible columns. View all accounts with inbox and email, or just inbox and email, or just the email. I can’t remember if the iPad can do this. Maybe it does.

- Angry Birds Sound Easter Egg: This is more a just-for-fun thing. To get rid of “cards” you can flick them up or pull it down like a slingshot and watch it fling upwards. Do this in landscape mode with the main button on your left hand side and hear the Angry Birds slingshot sound and then “wee!” when letting go. My 16 month old daughter loves to say “wee!” with the Touchpad after hearing the slingshot getting pulled back, haha.

- Dual boot with Android: Ok, so I haven’t done this yet but I heard that it could be done. It’s on my to-do list, and I’m excited to see if it would double the awesomeness.

Things I don’t like:

- Lack of apps: Understandably this could be a deal breaker for anyone. After the swirl of not continuing support to supporting and back, I don’t expect the app store to grow much more. But webOS lives on and the faithful homebrew community continues to develop. Installing preware is fairly easy yet I haven’t taken advantage of any of the available homebrew apps. And with all the Touchpads out there now, the number of users is hopefully strong enough to warrant more apps, and from what I read porting apps from the other platforms is not all that hard… so I’m crossing my fingers for more apps!

Overall, I think this is a great laptop alternative in a tablet form factor… with a great price point!

Love Ruche. Love homemade. Love the holidays. Love this.

I was saddened to hear the news this morning about Andy Whitfield passing yesterday. The hubs first saw the news on his phone and hesitated telling me since he knows I, like most other Spartacus fans, am a huge fan of his. No tears were shed, but it is sad to know that any hope for his return to future Spartacus seasons is now gone. He was a fantastic Spartacus! Now who wants to watch/rewatch “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” with me?!?

Season finale for True Blood Season 4
1 episode left!

Season premiere of Dexter Season 6
It’s been too long… I miss Dexter!

Season premiere of Spartacus: Vengeance
Despite it being Andy Whitfield-less and me not liking this new Spartacus, I’m hoping for a good season anyway. Crixus and Gannicus might be my new favorites XP

Being a busy mom it’s difficult to get things done for myself. I’ve been putting off cutting my hair and it was getting so shapeless that I decided to take matters into my own hands… literally. I accidentally stumbled across this video when doing a search for hairstyles, and I’m so thankful I found this!

I did more research and found that people refer to this layer cut as the “ponytail method” for obvious reasons. After gathering some more techniques from watching videos from some at-home-haircut product (creaclip), I ended up doing this ponytail method in 3 main areas to get more dimension in my layers. With a little no-heat styling, here’s my result!

I think when it comes to long layered haircuts, I’m going to be doing these on my own from now on

Apparently this girl, Promise Phan, is Michelle Phan’s sister-in-law or something. I looked through some of her tutorials and am actually pretty impressed. Just check out her Angelina Jolie transformation!

Amazing! And you know I love me some AJ! Hehe

I’ve been in a crafty mood lately and I think it has to do with my baby’s upcoming birthday party. I plan to make/bake some stuff for it, like pins for giveaways and cake pops, but I’m still not 100% sure yet. I don’t have the luxury of time or the ability to make it happen when the mood strikes, but we’ll see. The funny thing is I haven’t really been working on crafts or desserts for the party, except for the cake pops, but instead I’ve been preoccupied trying other things out. Like making stuff with my duct tape.

I made some of these bows for my daughter and nieces and haven’t decided yet if I’m going to affix them to a headband, bobby pin, or clip. I think a headband would be cute and the easiest to do. A clip would be cute too, but I think I’d want to adhere it with a glue gun which at the moment I don’t have or can’t find (for shame!).

Also on my “want to do” list is making a sea salt spray for my hair. I’m very low maintenance when it comes to my hair and since I’ve been trying to grow it out it’s been starting to look a bit “blah”. I’ve been playing around with different styles to liven it up a bit, and all require little to no effort.

First, creating waves with no heat… on slightly damp hair I put in leave-in conditioner, throw it up into a couple buns (top and bottom), wait a couple hours (or leave it overnight), then take it down when it’s dry, finger comb it, then run some Bed Head After Party into it. Second, creating temporary peek-a-boo highlights by clipping in some old colored hair extensions I got a while back under the top layer of hair. And now third, going for those “beach waves” for even less effort than the first by spraying a homemade sea salt spray in my hair, scrunching it, and letting it air dry. I have yet to try this to see how well it works. Basically all I need to do is dissolve a couple teaspoons of sea salt in a 8oz of warm/hot water, let it cool, and put it in a spray bottle. A dash of conditioner is optional. I can’t wait to try this.

I woke up this morning excited to finish up my cake pops. What was I thinking?

Overall, I think it was a success! Would I do it again? Eh, maybe. I thought coating them would be fun but it turned out to be the most tedious part… not surprising, I guess. But they were delicious and that’s all that matters Here are some lessons learned:

1. buy at least 2 bags of candy melts – I ran out and had 9 naked cake pops left
2. leave them in the fridge/freezer until I’m ready to coat – The first few turned out ok since the balls were firm enough to take some twisting on the stick. After they started to thaw a little, I had a couple just fall straight off the stick But it could be also due to the oil I used in the cake mix. Which leads me to #3…
3. use regular veggie oil – I thought I had general vegetable oil but when I started cooking I saw I was out Instead I used EVOO because technically it is still a veggie oil, right? I don’t think it affected the taste but I think it contributed to the lack of firmness in the cake when trying to coat them since EVOO doesn’t harden when cold. I also noticed some oil seeping out of tiny holes after the candy hardened. This probably wouldn’t happen with regular veggie oil.
4. sprinkle directly on the pop rather than dipping – I tried dipping straight into the sprinkles, then tried sprinkling it directly on the pop. The former was a mess after a while… and makes for less cute pops.
5. melt more candy melts at a time, or keep it pretty hot – It was suggested to melt in smaller batches but it made it difficult to roll the pops in a shallow bowl. I think it might be easier if I could melt more and just dunk the whole darn thing in at once to try to get an even coat. I got paranoid towards the end after a couple twisted off while twirling that I started to just pack it on and hence got a bumpy coat (in the pics, early smooth pink ones vs later bumpy purple ones). It also helps when the melts are pretty hot because the excess will run off freely and it leaves a nicer smooth coat.
6. roll smaller balls – The smaller the pops, the easier to coat and the less likely to fall off the stick while coating. Don’t get greedy and make giant ones (like I did).