Blaze Media Pro is a powerful yet easy to use all-in-one audio and video converter that allows you to convert, rip, edit, record, burn and playback for all popular audio and video formats like MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, MPEG-4, AIFF, M4A, AAC, AC3, FLAC, ALAC, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, WMV, and more. It also support CD, DVD, VCD and SVCD burning.

Other advanced features include MOV converter, video capture, video creation, combining, and extraction, video editing, copying of music CDs, audio and video merge (joining), MusicID audio recognition, lyrics search, audio tag editing, FreeDB support, and more. The audio content of video files can be extracted and saved to sound files, and frames can also be extracted to images files in batch mode. Video files can also be created from still frame images and/or other videos.

What can we possibly do with all these powerful features of Blaze Media Pro? Well, you don’t have to be a computer genius to use this software, it’s user friendly and easy to use even for mom like me

I’ll tell you what I did with Blaze Media Pro yesterday - first, I converted some of my favorite old CDs (like Johnny hates Jazz CD) to mp3 format. I’ve tried the “Edit Audio” function to shorten few mp3 songs to create ring tone for my beloved W810i. I’ve also converted few of my favorite music video from avi to 3gp format for my mobile phone. I don’t have an iPod, but it’s glad to know that with Blaze Media Pro, you can also convert your favorite video to the iPod supported video format too. It really makes it a breeze to converter all my favorite videos with all the preset video formats to choose from and not to mention - the easiest way.

I have not tried the other features like video editing, but looking at the menu, I’ll say it’s a user friendly and easy to use video encoder. If a mom like me can use this all-in-one audio & video converter at ease, I’m sure you can find more ways to do with this powerful software. Then, what are you waiting for? Try the fully functional Blaze Media Pro for free now courtesy of http://www.blazemp.com

Kung Fu Panda Po Lantern

Winnie The Pooh Lantern

Happy Lantern Festival in advance!

To spy or not to spy?

If you are a parent, can you trust your nanny enough to not install nanny cams when you are away from home? If you have decided to install a wireless spy cams to monitor your nanny and your child, is it legal to do so?

How about if you are a babysitter or nanny, do you feel your privacy has been invaded by the nanny cams?

It’s a tough decision, isn’t it? As for me, I think it’s essential to install nanny cams. Most of the parents will decide to install nanny cams when they suspect something unusual with their child. How about there’s no outward sign like bruises or change of behavior? What if your child is too young to tell you something terrible has happened to him/her? Maybe your child has been threatened not to tell you about certain incidents? Are our kids safe in our own home when we are not around? Think again.

According to law, it is legal to videotape nannies without their consent. Generally, a videotape without sound did not violate the Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act. However, laws governing use of a camera with audio do vary from state to state.

Can nannies expect privacy in the home of others? Unfortunately, the answer is NO. In State v. Diaz, 706 A.2d 264 (1998), the leading case on this topic, the court ruled that a videotape made by a hidden camera in the residence of the parents of the child was admissible as evidence in the lawsuit against the nanny for assault and child endangerment. The court decided that since there was an absence of state action, and the Constitution did not protect the nanny’s privacy in someone else’s house. (Reference : Nanny-Cams and our Privacy by Jessica Sann)

To Spy Or Not To Spy? If your answer is yes, installing or setting up a nanny cam is easier than you think. Just order the nanny cams and follow the step by step, user friendly, online video tutorials provided by the company. No fuss, no complications, just peace of mind knowing that your child is well monitored by you!

My elder son did the Humpty Dumpty Lapbook that I’ve downloaded free from the Homeshool Share website, it’s about Humpty Dumpty and egg facts :

This adorable Humpty Dumpty Puppet is from page 42 of Abeka “Health, Safety & Manners Reader 1″.

My daughter did the Little Boy Blue Lapbook which is also available free at the Homeschool Share website. It’s about the nursery rhymes, horse and sheep facts:

This year, I’m truly blessed with 3 trips in-a-row within a month. First, we went to Labuan Island for my hubby’s paintball tourney. Second, me and my son went to Kuala Lumpur for holiday with my mom. Third, I went to Johor Bahru with my hubby for the Florafest Paintball Tournament. It’s a 7-day break in between of each trip, the Kuala Lumpur trip was planned earlier on, and the tournament trips are added later on.

Our first trip to Labuan was a total disaster. It’s not planned, and my hubby made the last minute decision about the trip (that’s 1 day before the trip!). No preparation was done except packing for the basic stuff like clothings and toiletries. On Saturday morning, all of us have to wake up early - 6am in the morning and drove to Menumbok (about 2hrs drive) in order to catch the ferry about 10am. As usual, my daughter slept in the car, but my son was wide awake throughout the journey to Menumbok, and lacking of sleep will normally makes him hyper active. We reached the Menumbok ferry terminal about 9.30am, and because of last minute booking, our car couldn’t get the admission ticket. Thank God my hubby managed to talk to the ticketing officer and they give us the green light to go, otherwise we would have to drive back to Kota Kinabalu and cancel the trip. There, we boarded the ferry. Well, that’s not the end of our disaster yet - children, when they are exhausted, lack of sleep and hungry too, they will either be hyper active or irritable. In my children’s case, it happens altogether at once! We were really having difficulties in keeping our kids to behave in the ferry, they were running and answering back to us when we told them to behave. In the end, my hubby has to raise his voice and it attracted unwanted attention from the other passengers. Still, this is not the only fuss, as my kids were making noise in the passenger seats, my hubby’s friend has called and told us that the our hotel room is not available. Then my hubby started calling all the hotels in Labuan, and the room rates are too expensive. We have no choice but to wait until we reached Labuan and try to look for any available inn. It’s a 1 and a half journey in the ferry but it feels like ages!! Thank God we managed to find a hotel that cost us RM150 per night for the family room, nothing fancy but at least a place for us to stay overnight. After we have checked in the hotel, I have decided to stay in the hotel so that my children would take some rest while my hubby attended his tourney. At night we went to the Financial Park Shopping Complex to have our dinner @ KFC since we do not know where to eat at Labuan. The next morning, me and the kids stayed in the hotel as I have to pack all the luggages and the Chocolates that we bought here - Labuan Island is a well know duty free island with lots of fancy chocolates - and we were supposed to catch the 1pm ferry. We have our lunch and more crisis to come!! According to my hubby our car is in the waiting list, so we took our sweet time to have our lunch rather than going to the ferry terminal early. When we went to the ferry terminal, there were lots and lots of vehicles and lorries queing there! There we waited, waited, for about 1 hours, until the last vehicle boarded the ferry before us, and nothing happened, we were still waiting at the port…means we MISSED the ferry!! We have to stay here for another night, my hubby couldn’t go to work and my daughter has to miss her school next Monday! Not to mention we totally overspent on the hotel accommodation. And the worst thing was, my hubby really worried and couldn’t sleep well that night fearing that he would be fired! And our family were really feeling tense and irritable during the whole trip…On our way back to Menumbok the next day, the kids still couldn’t keep still in the ferry, and we were still very angry and upset. The air-conditioner in the car was not working properly during our 2 hours drive back to Kota Kinabalu, all of us were really exhausted after we reached home. The moral of this story are :

• Never, ever, go for any unplanned trip, especially if you are bringing your kids along
• Know your destination well, you can check out tourism information from the internet
• Book your hotel reservation early
• Go to the ticketing counter early if you need to purchase bus fares, ferry fares and so on and do not take things for granted.

Labuan Island

My second trip to Kuala Lumpur was a total enjoyable trip with my son, mom, aunt and my sister. We made our airline reservation online, chose the window seat for my son, and booked the 10.50am flight from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur. For the first night, we stayed at the Le Meridien Hotel, KL where it is located next to the KL Central, we used the LRT to the Mid Valley Mega Mall, it’s a bit congested around 5 to 6pm so we didn’t do any shopping yet. We moved to the Boulevard Hotel which is located at the Mid Valley City the next day. It’s a very convenient place to stay especially if you love to shop or vacation with young children. We have our hotel reservation booked online and got quite a good deal on the room rates. Why do I love this hotel so much? Well, we love to shop, after our hands were full with many shopping bags, we can go back to the hotel and unload! When my son was tired, we can go back to the hotel and take a rest. If we were hungry after the shopping complex closed, we still can go to the Kim Gary to have our supper, and they also open 7am in the morning, so my son who normally wakes up early can have early breakfast there. You can check out more details of the Boulevard Hotel here : http://www.hotelscombined.com/Hotel/Boulevard_Hotel_Kuala_Lumpur.htm

I absolutely enjoy my time with my son in the new Borders Bookstore located at the Gardens (the new shopping mall connected with Mid Valley Mega Mall). Since this is a family vacation, I didn’t do much shopping but rather spending a lot of times going to places that my son would enjoy, theme park, bookshops, toy shops and ice-cream parlor (his favorite place!) Here’s some tips for traveling with young kids :

• During the flight, bring your child’s activity books, coloring pencils, scrabble pads, magazines to keep him/her occupied.
• Pack your child’s favorite snack in his/her backpack in case he/she doesn’t like the in flight meals.
• Pack extra clothes, sweater in your child’s backpack.
• Write down your cell phone number, hotel’ name, hotel room number and telephone number on a piece of paper and put it in your child’s pocket. Show your child the information counter of the shopping complex and teach him/her to identify security personnel. Tell him/her to go to the information counter or security personnel if he/she were lost.
• Find out the family friendly place of interest for your destination from the internet.

Floral Fest @ Sunway Pyramid

Well, my third trip to Johor Bahru with my hubby is fine too. Since I’ve never been to Johor Bahru, I did a lot of research from the internet, especially hotel reviews. Most of the time, you’ll not get the real picture of the hotel unless you read the comments or reviews from the hotel guests. I did a bit of research on the public transport too as we were on the tight budget for this trip and couldn’t afford to use taxi transport most of the time. From the Senai Airport, we boarded the shuttle bus that cost us RM8 each to Johor Bahru city center, I found out about the shuttle bus service from the Senai Airport website. After that, we took a cab to our hotel - J.A. Residence, quite a cozy place to stay and about 5 minutes walking distant to City Square Shopping Center - one of the largest shopping mall in JB. When booking for hotel accommodation, I always opt for hotel that is located near shopping complex since I like to shop and there’ll be definitely no problem in looking for places to dine. The next morning, we took a cab to the Larkin Bus Terminal and took buses from JB to Kota Tinggi, from Kota Tinggi to Bandar Penawar, then took a cab to Desaru Damai Beach Resort. It costs us less than RM15 per person to reach Desaru (on sharing basis), if we took a cab from JB directly to Desaru, it would cost us RM120 one cab! Thanks to Wikitravel and well planning, this is a great and cost effective getaway for me and my hubby!

Desaru Damai Beach Resort, Johor

Last advice on travel survival guide : Know your destination well and plan ahead

How do we baby proof our home? Some of the basic safety measures are : installing baby gates to keep baby or toddlers away from stairs; covering all the electrical outlets that are within your baby or child’s reach with outlet cover; installing window guards to help prevent falls from windows; installing cabinet locks on all the drawers or cabinets that contain sharp objects, plastic bags, medicines, liquor or hazardous items; installing stove guard and oven lock in your kitchen; installing TV guard and DVD guard; covering the sharp edges of tables with corner cushions; installing door pinch guard; installing fireplace guard to keep your baby or toddler from it.

There are many possible injuries that could happen right in your home, hence it is important to check out more child safety tips on baby proofing your home.

Below are some creative ideas for baby shower party favors.

1.Buy baby bottles, baby socks or even cloth diapers (if you can still find one) then fill it up with assorted goodies like candies and chocolates. After filling the items, you could tie cute little ribbons around them. The items would prove to be useful. Some of the guests may even give them back after a few weeks.

Baby Gift Set Socks by Trumpette - Boy Socks (Set of 6) 0-12 mos

2. If you bake then you can prepare cookies (choco chip, butter, sugar, oatmeal, etc.) in the form of baby bottles, baby rattles. Babies and other baby related shapes. You can package the cookies in colorful plastic or paper wrappers.

Train Cookie Cutter

3. As you probably already know, candles are a big bit among women. That why they probably would be a big hit for the guests on your baby shower party. Buy scented votive candles. These candles are usually sold in sets to make them cheaper. Then decorate the candles with ribbons. Colors of course will depend on your personal taste or to the theme of your baby shower. Of course it would usually be blue if the baby is a boy and pink if the baby is a girl. The candles smell great and they would even look great when they are wrapped. Candles are an ideal party favor for any occasion since they mix very well with any theme.

Baby Candle

4. If you have a green thumb and likes plants in general then maybe you can give away some of plants in your garden. All you have to do is buy some small seedling pot. Graft a stem on some plant and plant them into the pot. This type of party favor is symbolic since your gusts would be obliged to take care of the plant just as if they have their own babies. You could also buy coffee mugs or wine glasses and a bunch of flowers. Then put a flower in the mug or glass as if they are flower pots. This baby shower party favor would definitely be a big hit.

5. Baby bath items like baby soap, baby shampoo, baby oil, baby lotion, etc. can also be a big hit among your guests because they can be either used for their very own babies or for themselves if they are single. You can also include other bath accessories like sponges, loofahs, scrubbers, small towels, etc. You can arrange the items in mini baskets or hampers. Then tie a ribbon in front of it for it to look cute.

Lambs & Ivy Mini Cake Yum Yum Baby Gift Set in Pink

6. You could baby stuff made of fabrics like cloth diapers and bibs then paint them using craft paint. Make colorful designs such flowers, animals, insects, cartoon characters, cars, clowns, candies, etc. The end product can be use as a decoration or as a hanky.

Two-sided reversible baby Double Dipper Bib

There you are, six creative homemade baby shower party favor ideas that your guests will surely love. Who knows, you might end up making a business out of your masterpieces. Remember, all you need is some creativity and crazy ideas to make these baby shower party favors.

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This is an Asian Region Paintball Tournament. Few pro teams from USA are also being invitated to this event, they are the Dynasty, XSV, Infamous and OC Bushwackers. Among the best Asian Region players are Persian Legion (from Iran), Ku (from Japan), Global Gutz (from The Philippines).

Here are the some of the photographs that I’ve taken during the event :

Event officiated by Y.B. Dato’s Sri Azalina Binti Dato’ Othman, Malaysian Minister of Tourism.

Pro teams : XSV (grey & yellow jersey) & Dynasty (black & blue jersey)

Splatzone Dragoons (Sabah, Malaysia) - you guys are the best!

Splatzoners & Persian Legend

View from Desaru Damai Beach Resort

For all the paintball lovers and enthusiasts, the next World Cup Asia 2008 will be held from the 14 to 16 2008 at Terengganu. It’s the Final Leg of the Paintball-Asia League Series. The location is yet to be confirmed and I heard it might be a change of venue to Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur…stay tuned for the latest updates

All the best to Splatzoners!!

Fancy some paintball games? Check out Kota Kinabalu Paintball Centre.