When Brian and I first got together many, many years ago we used to really look forward to Valentines Day. It was probably the biggest holiday of the year for us, second only to Christmas.

We would make a really big deal out of it. We would get each other extravagant gifts (remember that this was before we had our financial epiphany) besides going out to a special dinner date and all of that. He would get me valentines gifts and I would get stuff for myself, too. Most of the time it was lingerie to wear on our special date. Valentines is one of those events where the women really making a killing. LOL!

These days Brian and I don’t really get it each other anything. Normally, we will go out to dinner and then maybe schedule a couples massage for the weekend. That’s pretty much it. If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll get flowers delivered to work. I remember I did that one year for him, back when he worked for Intrust Bank. I had it delivered to their office downtown. It really took him by surprise. Only a handful of people got flowers delivered that day, and the only other guy to receive flowers was gay. He didn’t even get a dozen like Brian did. LOL.

I really splurged that year because I did some other things besides the flowers, which back then cost me $80. When you’re getting paid less than $8 an hour, that’s a full days worth of work. It was worth it, though, because it made him feel special (and a little gay). That’s okay, though. We have always been somewhat unconventional.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentines Day!

Here’s a conversation Brian and I had in the car on Friday night..

BRIAN: It would be cool to work for Viega, but I would be traveling a lot.

CHING: And that’s bad?

BRIAN: We haven’t been apart for more than a week. I couldn’t do it.

[ It was actually two weeks back in 1999 but whatever. ]

CHING: You’re such a wuss. My dad did it for three years.

BRIAN: Yea, but I love you too much.

CHING: You don’t think my dad loves my mom? He paid $30K for her beautiful teeth even though she didn’t need them. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

BRIAN: But that was for sexual reasons!

[ Inside joke. We both busted up laughing. ]

CHING: I’m so going to tumble this!

BRIAN: Don’t! Your mom will kill me.

CHING: She brought it on herself.

[ More laughter in the car… ]

Not to pick on mom but her Beverly Hills smile, a work in progress over the last two years, is now complete. She is so proud of it that she tends to over-share. Who can blame her, though? Her teeth are absolutely perfect and truly something to behold.

Anyway, mom had her smile makeover done locally by Dr. Coad. For those can afford it, you can get a true Beverly Hills smile from Beverly Hills dentist Dr. Maddahi. Dr. Maddahi performs smile makeovers using advanced dental techniques including painless air drills, miniature cameras, and digital x-rays. Now, you too can have a perfect smile like my mom’s!

The one thing that I love about my insurance company is that every year, around the holidays, they send me these pre-printed, self-adhesive mailing labels with my name and address on them. Brian and I both get one, and then we also get ones with both of our names on them. They are really helpful because we used to have to handwrite our name and address on our mailing envelopes. If you have a lot of bills like we do then handwriting your name and return address on envelopes is a tedious process, which is why the free mailing labels were such a lifesaver. The only downside is that we are using holiday-themed labels throughout the year. We don’t really care, though, because it saves us time. We use them anyway.

A couple of months ago, right before I got some more from my insurance company, I ran out of these. I had to handwrite a few. It didn’t take long before I finally decided to purchase some address labels from Vista Print. I am really glad I found their web site! The labels are not expensive at all. They start out at only $7.99 and you can customize them or design your own altogether. No more holiday mailing labels in the middle of summer!

Of course, as luck would have it, I got some new mailing labels from my insurance company so I didn’t have to buy my own after all. But that’s okay, I will save the ones from the insurance people for emergencies because the ones from Vista Print are much, much nicer.

I really wish I knew about dry shampoo before. Seriously. I could have really used this on our flight to Jamaica. The restroom facilities on the plane don’t lend themselves well for washing your hair. It would have been nice to have been able to freshen up, though. Clean hair would have been a nice perk. I could have cleaned my hair with the dry Salon Grafix’s spray powder shampoo line. Unfortunately, I’d never heard of it until just the other day from a Canadian friend. I guess this Salon Grafix stuff is really big over there. The other hair styling products have been around for a while but this dry shampoo stuff is pretty new. It’s great for those who travel a lot, or for those busy days where you have to be at work (or school) all day and then you have a special function to attend at night. You get fresh, clean hair with no muss or fuss.

Okay, maybe just fame rather than fame and fortune. Many have gotten famous because of their videos, though. Like Chris Rocker for example. That “Leave Britney Alone” video has made it all around the world and back several times. Oh, and the clip is actually going to be used in one of this year’s spoof comedy films. I forget what the title is but I saw a preview of it when we went to see National Treasure 2. (Or was it when we went to see AVPR? I can’t remember.) Or even better yet, you could be the next Arnel Pineda.

The point is, more and more people are getting their kicks online rather than watching TV. Really, with videos on your computer more and more people are going this route for entertainment. The web can provide hours upon hours of entertainment and if you’re not careful then… Well, let’s just say nothing will ever get done. No housework, homework, work-work. No nothing. Such is the power of these viral videos.

Anyway, YawpBox is going to start a new TV show consisting mainly of user-generated content. Here’s your chance to be famous like Chris Rocker because you can share your video with other users.

TV show hosts Lex and Terry will have challenges where users must create specific content. Then they will select the best ones and put them on the show. So now is your chance. The world wide web is calling.