Abu Dhabi Welcomes The New BB Bold 9700

It's official, the new BlackBerry Bold 9700 is here in the dunes of the United Arab Emirates. Approximately it costs $ 738 at Etisalat and maybe cheaper at Defense Road and Madinat Zayed Mall, let's see! I can't wait to have one this holiday season.

Wish!

I LVoe!

GARAGE Magazine Philippines

Save the best for last.

I can't wait to have my own copy. What's inside?

Garage Magazine December 2009/ January 2010 issue.

Teen Actor: Aljur Abrenica

The Nike X Maraham Sneakers

Another day, another half-baked sneaker collaboration? Not quite. Nike has co-opted Maharam, the world’s leading supplier of textiles for architects and interior designers, to emphasize the relationship between the way a sneaker looks and how it feels. If that seems like a facile point to make — that fabric alone can affect appearance — examine your own kicks. What’s that material even called? From burlap to bombazine, the world of textiles is esoteric enough to make even the most devoted sneakerhead spin.

With these $250 sneaks, Michael Maharam shot for what he calls “restrained opulence,” choosing a luxurious but underused fabric, horsehair. Nike calls horsehair “a renewable resource” because it’s clipped painlessly from the horse’s tail, but Maharam concedes that horsehair is not a practical replacement for everyday fabrics. “It grows slowly, is woven on arcane Victorian-era looms at a tedious pace, and costs a fortune,” he says. But — whoa, Nelly! — what a result.

The Nike x Maharam collection features three classic weaves — basket, check, and striae — on two of Nike’s easily recognizable (grace à swoosh) sneaker silhouettes, the high-top Blazer and the low-top Oregon Waffle. The kicks are classy enough to pair with a suit. “In my closet,” Maharam says, “it’s a Thom Browne suit in charcoal gray worsted wool Thorn-proof.” Talk about living in a material world.


Nike x Maharam sneakers are available at select Nike Sportswear shops, including the location at 21 Mercer Street.

I want to have the sneakers in the middle, it is so LV damier graphite, but cheaper!

I LVoe!

Thanks to tmagazine

5 Behaviours Of Manipulative People. Beware!

Be careful of people like this...

Many of us like to think the best of people. We like to think that they shoot straight and are forthright in their intentions. We also like to believe that they will ask for what they want and not resort to crazy tactics to get it. Unfortunately, however, there are times when we come across those who will do whatever it takes to get what they want…including manipulation. Being manipulated never feels good, but the worst part of manipulation is that often, we don’t even realize that it is happening. Here are a few ways to know if someone is trying to manipulate you:

Buttering You Up: To get their way, manipulators will often make you feel good so that they can then ask you to do something that they want. The person may first compliment you or tell you what a wonderful job you did on something. Making you feel good will, in their mind, make it difficult for you to say no…after all, you wouldn’t want to disappoint them or give them reason to think you didn’t deserve the compliment in the first place. What you can do: Return the compliments and the niceties before saying no.


Guilt: This doesn’t only pertain to Catholics and Jewish Mothers; guilt trips have been a successful manipulation tactic for centuries. The saddest part of this strategy is that the victims of this tactic succumb to the manipulators’ demands because they feel they HAVE to, not because they WANT to. In personal relationships, this sets up a co-dependency that is extremely unhealthy. What you can do: Ask the individual if they want you to do something because you have to or because you want to. If they say they want you to want to do it, tell them that you don’t and that they are trying to force you into something you don’t feel comfortable with.


Broken Record: Probably the most obvious of formats is the broken record tactic. If a person asks you enough or pushes their agenda enough…constantly repeating the question or request over and over again…in slightly different ways, the victim will inevitably give in and give them what they want. Oye! What you can do: Ask the individual what they don’t understand about the word “no.” Tell them that asking you over and over again isn’t going to change anything and that they are inappropriately over-stepping boundaries.


Selective Memory: This one gets me the most. You swear you have a conversation about a plan and everyone is on the same page, and then one day, the manipulator pretends to remember the conversation completely differently, if at all. What you can do: Record your conversations…seriously! Okay, maybe not. At least have a witness that you can count on to back you up if the person pulls this shenanigan. Call them out on the fact that they conveniently change the game to fit their needs.


Bullying: If a person doesn’t get their way, they make you out to look or feel like the bad guy…like you are the wrong one. What you can do: Be firm and tell them that their bullying tactics are inappropriate and unacceptable.


Keep your eyes open for these behaviors and continue to stand your ground to ensure that you aren’t a victim of manipulation. Have you seen any other types of manipulative behavior?

In the industry I work, the airline industry, too much of this kind, the ones that are very lazy and too tired to do their work. Grrrr!


Thanks to yahoo

Your Signature Scent

Should the twenty-first-century gentleman have a signature fragrance? Err.. Of course!

Hmm... "smells good!" Chanel? Paco Rabbane? Joop? Terre d'Hermes?

Well if you have an everyday scent, people will start to register you invisibly and the more important factor of your signature scent? they will remember you! It's like you owning that particular scent.

The fragrance itself is the starting point and the rest is YOU! Try to test the fragrance that suites you, not because your friends or the SA's encourage you or its the best one in town. Of hundreds of perfumes in the world, there will be one that's just right for you. Try something that's you, fresh? spicy? manly? femine? (duh!) or sporty.

Get samples and test-drive them for a day; the right one will make people enjoy just being near you—and you should get comments to that effect. Once you've settled on one, master the application. You want a single short spray on the top of each forearm, one on the neck, and one down the back of the shirt (before you button up, pull the collar back and aim downward). Play with the volume till you get it right, remembering that the scent should be neither suffocating nor undetectable. In time, you'll have your own invisible ID and—oh yeah—one less thing to think about.

Hmmmmm Smells good? Is that you?

I LVoe!

Thanks to GQ

Dubai's $10B bailout by Abu Dhabi calms fears

Abu Dhabi feeds Dubai $10 billion to cover debt on deadline, calming financial worries for now...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Oil-rich Abu Dhabi pumped $10 billion into its indebted neighbor Monday, sending stocks soaring and sparing Dubai and the rest of the Emirates federation the humiliation of an imminent default by one of the struggling Arab boomtown's star companies.

AP - Two men talk to each other as they look to the Gate building, center, of the Dubai International ...

The bailout was about more than petrodollar transfers from one United Arab Emirates sheikdom to the other. Dubai officials also seized on the news to try to repair damage done by weeks of uncertainty stemming from their unwillingness to fully stand behind Dubai World as the conglomerate looked to restructure some of its $60 billion in debts.


Investors cheered Monday's news. Dubai's main index shot up 10.4 percent at the close and markets elsewhere rose modestly.

Prior to the crisis, most investors had assumed the Dubai government itself would guarantee debts amassed by its chief growth engine.


Dubai authorities are also scrambling to reshape the business hub's battered image, vowing that the city-state is committed to "transparency, good governance and market principles." Officials outlined a new legal framework that promised to increase openness and protect creditors in future dealings with the conglomerate, offering lenders succor in a country where formal bankruptcy proceedings are largely untested.


"We are here today to reassure investors, financial and trade creditors, employees and our citizens that our government will act at all times in accordance with market principles and internationally accepted business practices," Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of the Dubai supreme fiscal committee, said in a statement.


Some $4.1 billion of the funds released Monday will go toward meeting a deadline to repay Islamic bonds issued by Dubai World's Nakheel property arm. The conglomerate, whose sprawling holdings range from the oceanliner Queen Elizabeth 2 to luxury retailer Barney's New York, will use the rest.


The move, however, carries broader implications as UAE officials have looked to assure the market the country's economy was on solid ground. Their assurances gave voice to a silent concern that the whole country would be hit by the same investor mistrust that Dubai now faces.


The bailout bought Dubai, itself saddled with more than $80 billion in debts including Dubai World's, time it desperately needs.


"This is a very significant development," said Marios Maratheftis, head of regional research at Standard Chartered Bank. "It shows once again there is a one-country approach in dealing with the crisis, which is positive."


But it was unclear if the news -- assurances and funding alike -- would prove to be more than a temporary salve.


Standard & Poor's, which along with other credit rating agencies has aggressively cut its outlook on Dubai state-run companies, called Monday's move "a step towards rebuilding confidence." But it warned that the government's ability to bail out other firms remains uncertain.


Fitch Ratings, another credit agency, also urged caution, saying Abu Dhabi's bailout was "tactical in nature as opposed to a reversal of recent rhetoric regarding state support."


Abu Dhabi, which controls the UAE's presidency, has directly and indirectly provided Dubai with $25 billion over the past year, mostly by buying Dubai bonds. In all, Dubai's debts are roughly equal to its total economic output last year. The full extent of its liabilities is unknown, however, with some analysts putting the total at $100 billion or more.


The aid package is key for Dubai, which despite its international celebrity has little of the oil wealth held by Abu Dhabi. Dubai's ruler is the UAE's vice president and prime minister.


Dubai created Dubai World -- which has interests in seaports, real estate, tourism and retail -- to diversify its economy and boost its international clout. Much of the growth was fueled by easy credit. As the bills came due, Dubai struggled to repay as its economy was battered by the global economic downturn.


Nakheel, a property developer and hotel operator best known for building manmade islands in the shape of palm trees and a map of the world off Dubai's coast, was among those Dubai World companies that relied heavily on that easy money.


Plenty of questions remain, especially as Dubai works to salvage its reputation and the conglomerate tries to deal with the rest of its debts.


Dubai World, while welcoming the financial support, said it was nonetheless pushing ahead with talks to convince lenders to agree to a "standstill" -- effectively a delay -- on repaying part of its debt.


"This announcement constitutes a specific bailout of Nakheel, suggesting that as an entity (it) was deemed to be 'too big to fail,'" said Fahd Iqbal, a Dubai-based analyst at Middle East investment bank EFG-Hermes. "It does not, however, constitute a bailout of Dubai Inc. or Dubai World as a whole and this is important to highlight."


Officials said the emirate plans to introduce a reorganization law that could be used in case Dubai World is "unable to achieve an acceptable restructuring of its remaining obligations."


A person close to the Dubai government said the new law provided a legal framework for addressing corporate debt, though it did not mean a bankruptcy filing by state-owned companies was certain.


"The current bankruptcy law is untested," the person said, insisting on anonymity as a condition for briefing reporters on a conference call. "Dubai World needed a legal process to go through. The government was very focused on creating something that would be fair and transparent to everybody."


It was not immediately clear what, if anything, Abu Dhabi would expect in exchange for Monday's funding. Analysts had said an Abu Dhabi bailout could result in it exerting greater influence on high profile neighbor going forward.

But the individual close to the Dubai government said the money came with no strings attached.

"Let me be clear: Dubai has not given anything up. There have been no conditions on the funding," he said.

Thanks to AP and Yahoo