Wandering Dann

Im on my 2nd day as participants for the WordCamp Atlanta with other bloggers, developer and professionals.

Being a new wordpress user last Jan 20 this year, I am trying as much as possible to learn and discover it- feeling like a duck learning to swim by swimming.

The event makes me feel part of the family as what Matt Mullenwer had said its an open source code and it belongs to us.

I am loving wordpress, its for everyone and for sure will stand and grow to democratize publishing online.

WordPress is ours!

The following regular holidays and special days for the year 2012 shall be observed in the Philippines:

A. Regular Holidays
New Year’s Day – January 1 (Sunday)
Maundy Thursday – April 5
Good Friday – April 6
Araw ng Kagitingan – April 9 (Monday)
Labor Day – May 1 (Tuesday)
Independence Day – June 12 (Tuesday)
National Heroes Day – August 27 (Last Monday of August)
Bonifacio Day – November 30 (Friday)
Christmas Day – December 25 (Tuesday)
Rizal Day – December 30 (Sunday)

B. Special (Non-Working) Days
Chinese New Year – January 23 (Monday)
Ninoy Aquino Day – August 21 (Tuesday)
All Saints Day – November 1 (Thursday)
Additional special (non-working) day – November 2 (Friday)
Last Day of the Year – December 31 (Monday

C. Special Holiday (for all schools)
EDSA Revolution Anniversary – February 25 (Saturday)

See full Proclamation No. 295, s. 2011

Who says its expensive to dine in restaurants in New York City? If you happen to be in the city that never sleeps I recommend you take advantage the 20th Anniversary of NYC Restaurant Week January 16–February 10 (Monday–Friday) with 20 incredible days of three-course prix-fixe dining, featuring $24.07 lunch and $35.00 dinner at more than 300 restaurants.

NYC Restaurant Week is New York City’s original dining celebration and a pioneer in the dining industry. As the country’s first-ever restaurant week, it debuted in 1992 when it was developed as a one-time culinary event to welcome the Democratic National Convention (DNC) to the City. Though created to appeal to delegates and other DNC attendees, the program—with 95 participating restaurants—also found a strong following among residents excited to dine at some of the City’s top restaurants for a fraction of the usual cost—$19.92 for a three-course lunch—and who wanted NYC Restaurant Week to be a recurring event.

Over the past 20 years, NYC Restaurant Week has grown tremendously yet has remained committed to giving visitors and residents the opportunity to experience the quality, variety and hospitality that embody the NYC dining experience.

This year, in honor of the 20th Anniversary, NYC Restaurant Week is, for the first time ever, a 20-day event. Adding extra days to NYC Restaurant Week only underscores just how many reasons there are to celebrate this milestone for one of the City’s most exciting and anticipated events.

If you use your AmEx Card and dine out 3 times using the same card you get $20 back.

 

I was in Canada for a month from Sept 30 to Oct 31, 2011 to visit friends and backpacking with the couchsurfing community in Toronto, Thornbury, Sudbury, Montreal and Ottawa.

Since I am only staying for a month in Canada and I decided not to buy a pre-paid sim card since you have to buy the sim with activation fee of $10CAD aside from the monthly prepaid plan of $25 or a prepaid credit of $10.

Instead I use my friends or host number to call and text anyway there monthly plan is fixed and can call and text to Canada and even North America. Facebook chat and email also helped me in keeping with appointments for meeting, since there are free wifi spots all over, like McDonalds, Starbucks, and public areas and shops.

It happen I was in Montreal for my last week of backpacking trip that I was late for the appointment and decide where to meet up. If I use the pay phone booth its $1 to $2 dollars depends on the network of the partying you are calling. I remember that I still have credits in my Paypal account and discovered that using Skype monthly plan of $2.99USD to call unlimited to US and Canada, So I made a Skype call to my friend’s mobile number using my Iphone 3G connected to the free wifi of the shop where I had my lunch in Montreal and manage to meet up with and he showed me around his campus and went to a hike to Mont Real in that afternoon and see the amazing colours of Autumn leaves in Canada.

I did also purchase a $10USD Skype credits for me to text and call to other countries covered by Skype. It comes in handy and cheaper to call my country Philippines to any landline or mobilephone instead buying call cards.

Now I am in US and still I can use my Skype credits to call and text and maximize the use of the internet.

Although I acquired a prepaid sim card in the US given to me by my aunt after she used it for one week on her visit to US from Canada in November 20, 2011. I downgraded the plan to just text unlimited for one month of $15USD with T-mobile as the carrier. Good thing with their prepaid services I can opt to change the plan through calling their customer support or doing it online. I did manage to change if for 1$ a day text unlimited since I know that I will only be using the services for 10 days instead of paying for $15 for one month.

Autumn Trees on the way to hike Mont Real

I had my first blog in April 2006 using free site blogger but failed to posts regularly. I guess this goes for the Filipino trait “ningas cogon” of very enthusiastically starting things, but then quickly losing enthusiasm soon after.

It was only in early part of 2011 that I asked my friends Darwin and Bert to be a resource speakers to high school student about the internet and how to earn money online through blogging that I ended up renewing my determination to blog. I had to give credits and thanks to Darwin for sponsoring my domain name for a year and had this hosted for free under his account just few hours of writing this blog. And will be closely collaborating with Bert as my mentor in this blogosphere. And for sure will be looking forward to collaborate and network with other bloggers and looking forward to have a bunch of followers who will benefit from this site.

Why WanderingDann?

Wander means to go aimlessly or roam around without a definite purpose so I guess thats speaks of myself the adventurous part of me and go where the wind blows as they say. But I have to be in control and and guided with the compass that points always to the true North everything things will works out well.

Remember what Bilbo used to say “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to“, JRR Tolkien.

And I would agree with St. Augustine “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

So why am I joining the band wagon on online blogging, it boils down to leaving a legacy and sharing knowledge and information to everyone to make our freedom be used wisely.

As the great quote “Share your knowledge and experience. Don’t hoard information away like a miser.”

Wandering Dann

Cebu Pacific most awaited 1 Peso sale is their trade mark to make everyone Juan fly locally and internationally.

The catch is how to book fast and cheap since travel tax are not included and for Philippine passport holders the Phil travel tax of PH1620 and airport terminal fees of PH550 are not included.

To make fast booking, sign up and make an account for them where you have to fill up your details and card info (they don’t kept your security code).

Even as early as 12:01pm, you can book promo tickets even though the announcement will start at 12:01am the next day. Also booking the wee hours in the morning from 3am-6am is a good chance to have the online booking smooth due to less internet traffic.

To make the booking price cheaper you can fly without check in baggage so it will not add more than 500-1000PH of the cost. What you can do day before your trip you can add baggage for the same price than paying for the baggages in the airport check in counter will be expensive.

Travel insurance adds to the cost so you can opt to remove it and also for the preferred seating there is a fee. I travel without travel insurance and also omit the preferred seat.

Also work on the dates until you get the promo price as usual weekend dates will be costly and they offer few seats so you’ll be lucky to get promo price on your desired travel dates. But to make most of the seat sale promo be flexible with your travel dates and select the dates that gives the best price.

Enjoy and lets have more fun in the Philippines traveling locally and going international.

I am in US as tourist and will plan to stay here for 5 months or leave the country before my allowed 6 months stay before April 29, 2012.

I decided to open a savings and checking account in Bank of America last December 2011 with my passport and government issued ID from the Philippines. The Debit card I got has picture of me and I availed of the no maintaining balance and no monthly fees of my account using their paperless or ebanking savings and checking account set up.

Bank of America do have a good customer referral program to earn 25$ to 50$ when your referral opens a new personal checking for a minimum opening deposit of 125$ or small business checking account of 250$, you’ll both receive a cash bonus.

It is their way of saying thank you for spreading the word about the Bank of America products and services you enjoy every day.

Refer as many friends as you want to between now and January 31, 2012.

Hope to get my 25$ incentive as my friend in US will open her Bank of America checking account soon.

I was waiting for my train ride from Washington DC Union Station to Baltimore Penn Station that I decided to grab something for less than $2 bread. I only found the garlic breadsticks from Sbarro so i bought it and kept the receipt with an online customer survey and you get a free New York Styled Thin-Crust Pizza Slice cost around $4.

So i did fill up the survey online with the online link and then after few minutes of answering the survey I got a promo code to be written on the receipt and redeemed my slice of pizza.

If you want one for free, what you can do is to ask from customer for the receipt and do the online survey, fill up the promo code in the receipt, and redeem the Sbarro NY Thin Sliced pizza.

Your choice of Sbarro pepperoni, cheese, sausages and supreme pizza.

Learning how to survive in US for practically free.

Every time I am in Times Square in New York City, I will always make a stop and get access to wifi internet and most of all grab a free Grande Starbucks coffee at the newly renovated Times Square Visitor Center a one-stop shop for tourists and New Yorkers to buy tickets to Broadway shows from the Broadway Concierge & Tickets Center, courtesy of The Broadway League, and tours of the city from Gray Line New York. They can also get information on New York City’s many tourist attractions from NYC & Company’s kiosk. And grab free maps.

So to get a free coffee all you need to do is to answer the question of the day which changes every week from the Starbucks kiosk inside the Times Square Visitor Center.

The good thing wifi access is available and i just have to search for the answer with my iphone and done I’m warmed up with a free Grande Starbucks coffee.

Times Square Visitor Center
Hours of Operation
7 Days a Week, 8AM – 8PM

Address
Entrance is located at 7th Ave between 46th & 47th Streets
1560 Broadway, Ground Floor
New York, NY 10036
NYC & Co Information Desk
(212) 484-1222