Mary Jane's Niche

I have just finished reading Hope Donahue’s book entitled Beautiful Stranger: A Memoir of an Obsession with Perfection. I decided to write a short blog post about it because I don’t want to forget the insightful words of Hope Donahue. I am not going to talk much about it but I’m just going to direct you to this site where you can see a summary of the novel. I recommend this book to everyone!

But let me share my favorite part of the book:

The young, beautiful models in fashion magazines do not represent the norm. In fact, these freakishly beautiful women make up less than one percent of the population. Their looks are the result of a genetic gift. And yet, they are the standard against which we are told to measure ourselves. The magazines tell us that we, too, can be as lovely and desirable as they are if only we have the right beauty regimen, exercise program, or plastic surgery. And despite the bold claims of anti-aging treatments, there is no way to recapture youth. It’s a profoundly unfair ideal that leads women on an impossible quest.

The Off-Price Store offers authentic branded merchandise at prices that would keep your gift list under budget and fashion savvy! Brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Zara, H&M, Armani Exchange, Replay, Calvin Klein, Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch and many, many more! Direct from the factory, store close outs and branded over-runs, our prices are guaranteed to be the lowest!

The Off-Price Store would like to spread good cheer this November by giving their customers a 20% discount on all regular priced items from November 13 – 15. All they need to do is show us a receipt dated November 13 – 15, 2009 from any of the following establishments in Smallville Complex:

• Afrique’s
• Bourbon Street
• Freska
• Kopiroti
• Krua Thai
• Maki
• Pirates
• Red Steakhouse

The Off-Price Store Hours:
• Sunday – Thursday 11AM to 10PM
• Friday – Saturday 11AM to 12AM

The Off-Price Store Iloilo Branch
Unit 5, Smallville Complex, Diversion Road, Iloilo City

The Off-Price Store gives you the warmest regards this Christmas season! See you there!

I first heard about Google Wave through Plurk last summer after Google announced it at their annual Google I/O (Innovation In The Open). I was able to watch a short introduction via YouTube. I linked the video below so you could check it out. I got curious about this exciting new tool which is why I decided to sign up for it so I will be able to try out the preview once they release it to users. Google Wave was initially released only to developers but then they extended it to nearly 1 million users beginning September 30th. The initial 100,000 users were each allowed to invite 20 additional users. And because I signed up early I guess I was one of the initial users who are allowed to invite 20 Wavers! I finally received my invite last October 14th! And I have invited some of my friends to try out Google Wave with me.

So we’re currently using Google Wave Preview. And according to Greg a.k.a. Dr. Wave, Google Wave is a new tool for real time communication and collaboration. A wave is a shared space where you can discuss work, communicate with friends and colleagues using texts and videos, photos, maps and other interesting stuffs. This is just the preview of the tool so it’s still a bit rocky. So the Wave Team is going to need our help and feedback to make the product even better.

Aside from the real time communication and collaboration, Google Wave also has extensions that lets us add rich content and also integrate with other systems. To learn how to use the extensions, Wave has a screencast and a help center to teach us how. Wave Sodoku by LabPixies, Conference by Ribbit Corporation, Video Chat Experience by GixOO Ltd, Trippy by Lonely Planet, AccuWeather.com, Map Gadget by Google and the Yes/No/Maybe Gadget by Google are just some of the cool and useful extensions available for installation for the users. And if you’re one of the developers, the Extension Installer by Google is also available for installation.

Google Wave is more fun when you have others to wave with so that’s why  we were given the chance to nominate 20 people that we would like to add. We are still only using the preview so it’s still a bit wonky at times but still this tool is bound for greatness.

I still have 5 more invites up for grabs so if you want one just leave me a comment here! And to those who already have a Google Wave account please add me using my Wave address – maryjane.cabrera@googlewave.com. Looking forward to your waves!

If you guys want to learn more about this new tool from Google, check out the links below:

• Google Wave
• YouTube
• Wikipedia
• Mashable
• Google Operation System
• The Official Google Blog