Sorry guys, but I feel I need to join my family’s blogging crusade in defense of Walgreens, the prescription drugs and health products provider.

The ongoing dispute between Walgreens and Express Script is affecting a lot of people, both Walgreens and Express Script customers (patients), including US troops on the Tricare health program and employees whose employers have Walgreens as a pharmacy option.

I remember when – on 2010, I think – Walgreens’ initiative named Way to Well Fund made so many people happy, by providing the most disadvantaged communities a pack of sanitary information pamphlets and free health tests. That initiative was an act of humanity and compassion that could hardly be forgotten.

And today? As a response to Express Script’s selfish decision, the Walgreens Prescription Savings Club replies by helping its customers-patients further, with a lot of discounts and an annual membership that costs less than a magazine… $5 per person, and all needed pharmacy products for a year. Generous, isn’t it? All to relief the burden suddenly put on people’s shoulders by Express Script’s decision.

If anything, I hope Walgreens will find a new, trustworthy distributor that won’t play such dirty games on the face of people in need.

To show some support, we can add @Walgreens on Twitter and ‘Like’ Walgreens on Facebook. I’m going to, and would like to ask you to follow suit, if that’s okay with you. We can help a little, together.

P.S. Naral is going to support Walgreens too!

Naral is due in two days. I know this is crazy – she had to give birth two weeks ago – but her OB chose to prolong the pregnancy because Rou (that’s our baby’s name – a boy!) was still too small for his age.

Our baby Rou… half Bajoran, half robot… WOW! This is the first robo-hybrid baby to be born on Bajor, it’s a real event, so most Bajorans will be here when Naral is going to give birth. Can you imagine that? Hundreds and hundreds of Bajorans waiting trepidly before our entrance door! Guess our parents will need all their energies to keep them quiet – or maybe Odo and Nerys will come and tell them they better pray the Prophets for a safe delivery, rather than disturbing us with their noise. I look forward to the latter to happen.

In other news, I bought myself a new cellphone – I needed one for business – so I picked a LG DoublePlay™. Not just I adore LG phones (that brand produces incredibly sleek designs!), but the LG Doubleplay™ is also incredibly hi-tech:

• it has dual customizable touch screens
• a 3.5 inch display plus an independent sub display
• a 5-megapixel camera and 720p HD video recorder
• QWERTY keyboard
• Android™ 2.3 (Gingerbread) with Android Market™
• multi-tasking capabilities.

Could I ask for more than that? Oh, I don’t think so. Even Naral fell in love with it, ahah! It’s pretty good for social networking and multi-tasking capabilities, trust me.

Another thing I like about this phone is its messaging options, namely Cloud Text™ and Group Text™, which let me send and receive SMS’s and data from computers and tablets. You know, I send a lot of SMS every month, something like 300-500… I spend a fortune… ^^” Uhm. Now I can do it between phone and PC and that lets me save up some cash. BUT – heh! – I spend as many hours in social networking with the LG DoublePlay™ (which is the best under this aspect). I’m a severe case of phone addiction, ain’t I? XD

Oh, before I forget: this LG phone is ONLY available at T-Mobile (I purchased it from them).

A final word to conclude this entry: Naral and I would appreciate it if you could visit our babies’ site on sites.bundleofjoys.com/laira-rou, which we are currently working on and in the process of setup a newsletter for our friends and family members. Thank you!

Some questions for you guys:

1) How many hours do you spend on social networks and SMSing?
My answer: I’m hooked on CastleVille on Facebook so… plenty.. ^^” Hehe. With the LG phone I spend less time SMSing now though. No more than half an hour a day.

2) Do you think the LG DoublePlay™ could make the difference with your social networking needs?
My answer: Oh yes! It’s fun! x3

3) Do you like CastleVille as a game to play on Facebook?
My answer: I’m in LOVE with it! Please add me if you do. XD

Naral and I are saving up tight to buy Laira her very first Tracfone.

I know, I know… everybody says it’s way too early for her to own a cellphone, too young to even learn to count or read numbers and letters. Wow. Well, Laira is a different kid: she’s smart, intelligent, a little prodigy. She can read and write a few letters and numbers already. Of course she’s still too young to use mobile devices alone, but what are her parents for then?

And why a TracFone then?

You bet. So many features and a safe environment; a low price and no activation fees; $119/year and 800 minutes; unlimited calls and text messages. Naral and I have come to agree on the fact TracFone is an optimal choice for a kids phone. Samsung, Motorola and Nokia are more grown-up styled.

And then, Tracfone and its wonderfully cheap plans are so popular among US customers. That’s a plus to me.

I mean, just see what Real TracFone customers say about TracFone. I feel completely safe to let Laira use one.

Questions:

Do you allow your kids to own a cellphone?

If yes, what cellphone brand do you feel more comfortable and safe with?

But no, this Nixon is a watches design brand, very nice I must say. It’s a cute coincidence that it carries the same name as my bro Jazz’s mate though. Naral says we should tell Nixon just to see his face, but I don’t want to touch the subject on the phone… in person is better. Funnier. Ahah. Anyway, nixon 42-20 tide watches are neat, I like the style. I might get one for myself next time they have a sale. I got used on buying stuff I need online; sometimes online stores offer better discounts than local ones, and free shipping.

Now, switching subjects, I’ve had a chance to learn more about Naral’s Bajoran heritage.

The picture above represents Bajor’s planet-view geography and the localization of the principal cities. Naral’s mother is a native of the Paqu village, which is built on the river Glyrhond. The place is a rural area and it’s beautiful in its natural reserve, ancient buildings escaped from the Cardassian occupation and simple life. Much simpler, indeed, it was at the times of Naral’s mom’s childhood.

Two weeks ago, Naral and I spent some time with Laira at Jalanda, the most populated Bajoran city. We visited the Jalanda Forum, then we stopped to listen to a concert by Tor Jolan, notorious Bajoran musicist. Nothing too difficult for Naral’s conditions (she’s 3 months pregnant with our baby! Will tell you more about it ), but we stopped several times to rest at the park.

One thing I’m worried about: with the new baby, I’m afraid I’ll have to leave university. I got behind on my exams this year, you know… being a dad and a student is not that easy. Naral told me to keep trying and study if I want to, that I should never give up on my dreams, but I don’t know… We’ll see when the baby is born. If necessary, I’ll stop for a while and resume studying when he or she is older.

In the meantime, Naral’s dad found me a job at the family antiques shop. I’m not too much into antiques, but it’s a quiet job, it gives me enough tranquility to study and I can spend time with Laira and Naral all I want, since the shop is in Rakantha, on the other side of our house street.

Off I go to pick up Laira from her grandparents. Be back tomorrow or so.

Recently, my wife told me that my mother-in-law was coming into town for about a week and she was going to be splitting her time between our house and my brother-in-law’s place. Nothing upsets me more than finding out that my wife has known about something for months and only decides to tell me a couple days in advance. Basically, my mother-in-law makes me want to scream because she constantly criticizes every little thing I do. I wonder how she would feel if I were to come over to her house and complain about the way she has painted her house or how the yard could really use mowing. I do know one thing she can’t pick on me about is our new security system for the house. Ever since my buddy sent me Security Choice Website I feel like I have at least done one thing that my mom can never nag at me about. Now if I can just find out a way to stop her from waking up the house with her constant snoring everything will be fine.

I decided on getting rid of my contract plan with Wind on my spare cellphone, and get something cheaper, a plan that works without contract and doesn’t make me pay to activate or terminate the service. I’m talking about Tracfone’s new product, Straight Talk, a phone that comes with a wonderful Unlimited Monthly plan, for just $45. Yes, for that price I will get unlimited texts, calls and web access. Not bad, isn’t it?

I think Straight Talk has everything you need in a phone and in a plan. I tell you: I’m tired of dealing with contracts. I’m keeping Vodafone for personal reasons (my parents use that network, that’s why), but I’m getting rid of Wind, as I’m sick of having to spend a fortune just to call a friend or one of my siblings. It’s going to be either Vodafone or Straight Talk from now on.

Here’s a video about Straight Talk I found on YouTube:

There is a lot I need to thank my mom for, in this decision: she was the one to introduce me to Straight Talk, and she was the one to persuade my brother Buzz to try it out. Really, mom knows best.

My sister Asha on screen! XD Ahah, an entire conference about her. Notorious much?

My sister Scarlette featured on a boat! XD Ihih cute!

I simply love this site! XD On PicJoke, every day comes with a NEW photo effect! That’s really something, if you consider that most image editing sites are randomly updated. PicJoke makes it fun and easy to create funny pictures online and I truly love it. My sisters Asha and Scarlette were here with me while I applied the cool photo effects… We laughed like ever. XD Ahah!

What about you make funny photos yourself and then share them on your blog? :3 I’d love to see your post!

P.S. Next time’s Laira’s turn to get photo-edited!

Anyway, I just realized that my free WP theme is no longer downloadable from Uploading.com, so I placed it to my server instead, and you can now download it from there. I updated the link on the ‘Themes’ page under Goodies. Just to remind you: there is a Blogger version of the ‘GreenLand’ layout, available here: http://www.blogskins.com/info/262879.

And now, time for a little rant I guess.

One of my university classmates has a cousin, a girl, and this girl has started taking Topamax. If you don’t know what it is, I suggest you read the Topamax page on Wikipedia first, because what I’m going to write now is a rant-ish entry about the use of that substance, which, just to summarize it shorty, a strong anti-convulsant usually administered in order to treat epileptic seizures in both children and adults. Since it’s sometimes used to heal migraines too, people forget that it can be also very dangerous: if taken by a pregnant woman, her baby may risk a cleft lip or cleft palate malformation. Way too much to risk, but my friend’s cousin is still taking the medicine no matter the pregnancy state she’s in. I can’t believe how ignorant and negligent she is… my wife would immediately suspend any type of medicine that may be harmful to our baby, and I can’t really get how this mother can show no care about her baby to such a point.

Anyway, if you know anybody in the US that needs a Topamax lawsuit AND the damage was not caused by negligence as in my classmate’s cousin’s case, you may contact this address:

O’Hanlon, McCollom & Demerath
Personal Injury Lawyers
808 West Avenue, Austin, TX. 78701
512-494-9949

I’ll make sure to post that wedding entry a.s.a.p. Promised.

Naral was so sweet to buy me a Plantronics Voyager headset, with integrated Bluetooth. Oh, I wouldn’t imagine that she would gift me anything outside my birthday or other feasts! *__* How wonderful she is! Better wife in the world, trust me. <3

Regarding my daughter, she’s growing up to be a technician, I believe. She is showing an innate love for electronic devices and toy vehicles, and she’s alway excited when we take her out to the park, because she has the possibility to observe a lot of cars and other means of transport passing by. Well, she’s a worthy daughter to a robot father. Ahah. I’m so proud of Laira!

Next entry will be about my wedding, I promise. ^_~ Then I will begin writing every day, for a 30 Days Blogger Challenge. I saw many bloggers challenging themselves with these memes, and I want to try too.

Well, ’till later guys. Happy 2011!