Plus there’s the added benefit of being environment-friendly. Paperless invites!

However when I was trying to use evite again for Jo-Lo’s recently-concluded 5th birthday party, I noticed that evite was no longer as enticing to use as before. There’s just too much clutter and even the sent invitation does not look as appealing as before. And so for this round of invitations I used MyInvites. It served the purpose, although I missed the evite functionality of guests being able to say how many of them are coming so instead my wife and I made mental notes of how many they are in the family and made allowances accordingly (it just feels awkward to phone the guests and ask how many are coming).

I was supposed to go to a discussion of the merits of using myinvites versus evite, but as I looked around for more options I found another highly probable online invitation service: Socializr. And the fact that Socializr was founded by Jonathan Abrams of Friendster fame puts some weight on the possibilities for this service.

I do not have anything yet on my calendar though to warrant a test of Socializr. Perhaps you will have the opportunity to try out this service for one of your events. Let me know how it goes!

Back in the day, we used to cool off by simply staying away from the sun. We’d stay in the house and in front of the electric fan come noontime, or sit under the shade of the trees. Halo-halo is also simply the best.

But these days, we also have other choices in keeping ourselves cool. Still depends on availability in your locality, but it sure helps to know that we don’t have to rack up huge electric bills because of airconditioning.

Clothing has indeed come a long way from the cotton or polyester variety. We now have shirts that reflect UV rays and also wick sweat away from the body. Originally designed especially for trekking and mountain climbing, this technology is also available for everyday wear. Visit the North Face website for examples.

There are also a wide range of personal cooling devices out there (what will we do without inventors?). A nify idea is the solar powered fan from Gaiam. If you need to be out in the sun, why not use its power to cool you off? And at about 10.00 each, it’s nice to have or give as a gift.

Now if you want a “more complete coverage”, why not get one of these shirts with fans built-in? This Japanese invention (as reported by Reuters) uses two small fans which circulate air around between the wearer and the clothing, evaporating perspiration and keeping cool.

Another, simpler invention is the cooling bandana which has a cooling polymer that gets contact with your neck as you wear it and cools you down. Not sure how the polymer works but that’s how it’s advertised.

Sleeping in the summer an also be a challenge in those especially hot and humid nights. The Chillow from ProTherapy Supplies might help. It has an inner mechanism which, when combined with water, creates a cooling effect. It is not only useful in summer, it can also be used to relieve hot flashes, headaches, sunburns, and more.

Best of all, do not forget to slip, slop, slap n’ wrap when playing in the sun!

I come from a gaming family, however, being born at a time when the Game n Watch became hugely popular, followed by the Nintendos and the PlayStations and the PSPs.  So when food, clothing and shelter has been taken cared of, it’s time for gaming!

Jo-Lo couldn’t be any happier.  Me too!  And my wife too!  We’ve been playing for a couple of hours each afternoon and we definitely feel aching muscles the following morning.  We currently just have Wii Sports which is included in the package but I would like to get a Super Mario Brothers Wii too and some other games which can give us our much-needed exercise.

There’s this game with a videocam and you can do your exercises with it, that could be interesting…

It was definitely a surprise to see it still can do an evolutionary leap.  In the shopping mall we saw a small crowd gathering around what looked like a swiveling tennis racket without strings.  Only it wasn’t a tennis racket without strings, it was an electric fan without blades!  Amazing.  The natural reaction was to put our hand through the loop and half expect to be hit by an invisible blade.  And to see our hand pas through it made it even more amazing.  So what’s creating the wind?

There’s a bit of wind science in the design.  In simple terms, the design is inspired by a cross-section of an airplane wing where airflow is magnified 15 times.  And I don’t want to bore you with the details but it sure is a very interesting product.  Imagine having this in your living room!  Your guests surely can’t get enough of it.  The website dedicated to the Dyson Air Multiplier has a video of people who are seeing the product for the first time, and it is definitely the same reaction we had.

Models cost US$299.99 and $329.99.  Now imagine our reaction when we saw the price

(photo credit: www.dyson.com)