Planning a Wedding

Planning a wedding is very stressful. Most especially when you are doing it yourself. The wedding I have always dreamed off is something small. A very intimate wedding. Just family and our closest friends.

Prior to this engagement, I don't understand how could someone say that a wedding cost averages $25,000.00. Well, I guess if one have so much extra to spend. Why not, right?! Then they have this shows on WE called Platinum Weddings where people would spend hundreds of thousands and some would even spend over a million dollars. Are most woman really that self-centered? I just don't get this extravagant weddings sometimes. Now it's my turn to plan my wedding. I am seeing things first hand why a wedding could go exponentially expensive.



I am not taking it away to those who believe that they should spend an enormous amount of money. But I still could not see the logic behind it. Well unless you can afford it without breaking the bank, then go for it. But if you have to rack up our credit card and get personal loan, woman wake up and re-think because you could be divorce the next day when you start paying for the bills.

I am currently creating a site that would list my journey in planning my own wedding. Ms PinkBiik don't need a lavish fancy shancy wedding. Remember, I am not being cheap, I am being practical most especially in this TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES. ;-)
So hope you find the time to visit this site I am creating as soon as it is up and running The Nuptial of MissPinkBiik and MrUngoy.

Knowing (movie)

Mr. Biik and I went to go see the movie "Knowing" yesterday afternoon. The movie is rated PG 13 so we were not sure how we would like the movie. It was rated by most critic as a "C" we were not expecting it to be spectacular.


The movie is about a single father, John Koestler(Nicolas Cate) and his son Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury). John is a college Science professor who was still suffering from the death of his wife. His son Caleb was attending a school where they were digging up a time capsule that was buried 50 years ago. Then all the weirdness unfold. Each student in Caleb's Class opened an enveloped with illustrations of what the children from 50 years ago thinks the world would be like 5 decades from their time. Due to some unforeseen force, Caleb received the illustration written by Lucinda Embry field with number, front and back.

That's all I would give you but I sure did enjoy the movie. The computer graphics was great. The idea is something I would say different but I really do like it.

Facebook SCAMs

Are you one of the many who has been affected by "fb" addiction? For those who are not aware, FB is FACEBOOK. Another social networking but far different from Friendster and My Space. I even FB using my Blackberry. Awesome isn't it? I know you did not stop to read me blab about how I love facebook. But like any other Social Networking you have to be careful Protectin your Profile. Bewary of the people you add and the people who knows so much about you. Again, MSN really gives me idea on what I can share to my fellow bloggers or the tiny group of people who visit my blog.

Below you will find the article written by JR Raphael of PC World which I found at MSN.

5 Facebook Scams: Protect Your Profile

By JR Raphael, PC World

Facebook and other social networks can be downright unfriendly when it comes to scam attempts. Here's how to protect yourself and your Facebook friends.

Beny Rubinstein knows computer security. An employee of a Seattle-area tech giant with 20 years of IT experience under his belt, Rubinstein has seen a side of the industry that most people will never know. He holds a degree in computer engineering, and -- oh yeah -- he just got scammed out of $1,100 on Facebook.

Rubinstein's experience isn't entirely uncommon. (We'll get to the specifics in a moment.) What's striking about his story, though, is that it demonstrates how easily anyone -- even a highly trained expert in computer security -- can be ensnared by a seemingly simple social network scam. And all kinds of these scams are on the loose.

More than 20,000 pieces of malware attacked social networks in 2008 alone, estimates the online-security firm Kaspersky Lab. That's no surprise, either: While e-mail is still the most spam-filled medium, researchers suspect that social network cybercrime is growing at a far faster rate.

"People are used to receiving spam malicious messages in their e-mail, but it is much less common on Facebook," says Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with Sophos, which makes antivirus and anti-spam software. "They are lulled into a false sense of security and act unsafely as a result."

You can avoid becoming one of the many who make that mistake. We've dug up the dirt on five scams currently posing a threat on Facebook. We turned to analysts who study them as well as to users who have fallen for them, all to help spread the word about how these things work and how you can best dodge them. (Facebook representatives did not respond to our request for comment.)

Knowledge is the greatest weapon against becoming a victim. Read on, and arm yourself well.

Scam #1: The Nigerian 419

The scam: It may sound like a hip new emo band (or a somewhat old e-mail scam), but the Nigerian 419 will do more than just offend your ears -- it'll also empty your wallet. The moniker refers to a scam dating back decades that has recently entered the social network scene.

Back to Rubinstein. A couple of months ago, Rubinstein received some alarming Facebook messages from a friend and fellow tech professional.

"[He said] he was in the U.K. and was robbed, and needed $600 to fly back to Seattle," Rubinstein recalls.

The messages came both in Facebook-based IMs and in e-mail. They included details such as family members' names, making the notes appear all the more authentic. It wasn't until two hours and $1,100 later that Rubinstein realized what had happened: Someone had hijacked his buddy's account, contacted his friends and -- at their expense -- made off like a bandit.

"Scammers figured out that even though social networks don't have direct access to money, they have access to information that gives you a good shot at getting someone else's money," says Vicente Silveira, a product management director at VeriSign and a friend of Rubinstein's.

The protection: Before you send cash to a pal who seems to be in trouble, try to contact him or her outside of the social network, either by phone or by external e-mail. Not feasible? Ask an extremely personal question that a hacker couldn't possibly figure out from information within the profile. We'll leave the specifics up to you.

Scam #2: The widget warrior

The scam: Facebook is famous for its widgets -- you know, the third-party applications that you can add onto your account. Sometimes, though, widgets turn into warriors with a single mission: stealing your data.

The first rogue widget reared its head in 2008, when researchers realized that a program called Secret Crush had anything but sweet intentions. The application, which was supposed to help you find your virtual admirers, instead installed spyware onto your computer. Even worse, it encouraged you to spread the love by getting other friends onboard -- essentially "manipulating humans to pass it along on their own," says Guillaume Lovet, senior manager of Fortinet's Threat Response Team.

Secret Crush has since been crippled, but the potential for similar threats still exists. Recently, security experts determined that an application called Error Check System was misusing profile details and possibly stealing personal information. A few months earlier, researchers from Greece's Institute of Computer Science uploaded a malicious app to Facebook as an experiment (PDF). The team was able to configure the widget, which posed as a "Photo of the Day" displayer, to utilize its users' Internet connections for denial-of-service attacks.

The protection: Use extra caution when installing third-party applications. "When you accept to install one, malicious or not, you are granting its author access to all the info in your profile," Lovet says. Make sure you know what the app's creator will do with it.

Scam #3: The Koobface virus

The scam: Don't be fooled by the name -- there's little to laugh about when it comes to the quickly spreading Koobface virus. (The word, by the way, is an anagram of "Facebook.") Once the virus infects your PC, it starts sending messages or wall postings to your Facebook friends, directing them to a "hilarious video" or some "scandalous photos" of someone you both know.

"The link promises an enticing video, but when the user clicks, he is presented with a Web page with a fake Adobe Flash update or a fake codec that needs to be downloaded," explains Ryan Naraine, a security evangelist with Kaspersky Lab. "That download is malware."

The protection: Antivirus software can help keep you safe, but some common sense can also go a long way. "Be wary of any kind of direct URL in messages or postings," advises Jamz Yaneza, a threat research manager with Trend Micro. If a site asks you to download a software update, Yaneza says, click Cancel and go directly to the vendor's page to see if the update is legit.

Scam #4: The phishing pond

The scam: Phishing, a favorite hacker tactic, has found new life at social networking sites. Scammers trick users into following links that open official-looking Facebook login prompts. If you enter your user name and password, the information is logged -- and your account is theirs.

Brandon Donaldson, a pastor at the Lifechurch.tv Internet Campus, fell for the scam. Someone gained control of his Facebook account and started sending messages to his friends and followers, trying to persuade them to follow the same links and unwittingly give up their accounts, too.

"This was a pretty bad ordeal, since I regularly put video content up on the Web, and I use the Internet as a tool for many relationships," Donaldson says. "You build a certain social trust in these spaces, and you want to keep that trust without these kinds of incidents."

The protection: The previous plan also applies here: Watch where you click. Plus, if you're ever asked for your password midsession, don't enter it. Manually navigate back to the Facebook.com home page instead, and then log in there if need be.

Scam #5: The contrived community

The scam: Community enthusiasts, be cautioned: Facebook user groups can sometimes be cleverly disguised vehicles for marketing. And -- whether you realize it or not -- when you click the join link, you're effectively opting in.

Brad J. Ward was one of the first users to find such a scheme in action. Ward, then a member of Butler University's admissions department, discovered a Facebook group called "Butler Class of 2013." The only problem: The people behind it had nothing to do with Butler. After posting about the issue on his blog SquaredPeg.com, Ward soon learned that the names of nearly 400 other schools appeared in similarly suspicious groups, all created by the same small set of people.

"My initial reaction was that some company or person was essentially setting themselves up to be the administrator for hundreds of groups, which provides the opportunity to send out mass messages or to collect data," Ward says.

His instinct was right: The publisher of a college guidebook had set up the groups, seemingly with the goal of building a mass mailing list for marketing its products, Ward discovered.

"Was any of it illegal? Not necessarily," Ward points out. "But was it unethical, and could it be misconstrued as an official university presence? Yes."

Once exposed, the publishing company College Prowler admitted its involvement and agreed to back out of the groups. Still, that's only one company. More than likely, countless others haven't been detected, and are actively using groups to gain the trust (and information) of unsuspecting users.

The protection: Be very selective in deciding what groups you join. If you aren't sure who runs a given Facebook community, or whether it's officially linked to the organization that it claims to be, don't accept the request. Your privacy is worth more than any membership.

The Web of trust

In the end, staying safe comes down to maintaining control of your information and carefully selecting with whom you share it -- because you never truly know who's on the other end of electronic communication. Recently, for example, a high school student in Wisconsin was charged with 12 felonies after investigators say he posed as a girl on Facebook and tricked male classmates into sending him nude photos.

"An online version of the 'web of trust' is formed among users," notes Trend Micro's Yaneza. "Although this does work in the noncyberspace environment, the platform ... is really different when someone else is in charge of your medium."

It's easy to feel invulnerable while reading about such scams. The second you let your guard down, though, it's even easier to become the next victim. Just ask people who know Rubinstein, the IT pro who lost more than a grand to a Facebook scammer.

"Worse than losing the money, he realized how exposed you are in a social network," says Silveira, Rubinstein's friend. "We're exposing things now that are in many ways a lot more valuable than money."

DORA's New Look

My niece Doodle loves Dora the Explorer. I don't have a daughter so I could not relate that much. While browsing MSN the other day, I read the changes they are doing to Dora that is being VETOED by most mom's.

Below is the full article and let me know how you feel about it:

Can't a cartoon character at least be ageless? Answer: No. Nor can she just be a cartoon character. Next fall, Dora the Explorer may be trading in her androgynous bob and shorts for big hair, pumps and a miniskirt.

An actual doll will be part of the new version that Mattel says it will create for tweens. The younger, more innocent version will still be around, however. (Search for "Dora grows up.")

The only early evidence of what the new Dora would look like was a silhouette Mattel released as a teaser. That was all some needed to raise their voices. (Search for the silhouette.)

But just this week, the new Dora was revealed. (Search for more.)

Parents are PO'd. And a petition is circulating to pressure Mattel and Nickelodeon to reconsider. In it, petitioners ask, what's next: "Dora the fashionista with stylish purse and stilettos?"

It might not be so troublesome if the little Latina weren't seen as such a role model for kids. (Search for more.)

Among Dora's new features are some contemporary skills: shopping and makeovers. Plug her into the computer to change her hair length, jewelry and eye color.

Let's just hope Dora doesn't show up on one of those sites about bad plastic surgery.

And don't forget, Dora isn't the only doll trying to enter the modern world.

An ageless Barbie celebrated her 50th by getting tattoos. (Search for more.)

Strawberry Shortcake ditched the candy for fruit and a cell phone for a makeover described as "berry disturbing." (Search for more.)

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