Now if you can get used to the whole idea of reading comics on the phone, then this one is for you. The Comics App for iPhone and iPad and has lots of free downloadable comics and you can buy more to read if you so wish.

Now this one is for the creative soul in you and at a pinch will keep the kids busy as well. Tone Pad has a musical grid set up that lets you create your own ringtones and loops. You can make melody by touching the screen and seeing notes light up. You can also share the tunes with others.

The social networking and chat applications are a must IMHO, so you should have the Facebook app which has a unique grid interface and is actually better designed than the browser version according to many. Then there is the Twitter app which offers real time top tweets, trending topics and maps. Skype is I think the best chat service and the Skype app lets you make international calls, send and receive instant messages and do all the usual skype stuff.

Around Me is a useful app for getting all sorts of information about services around where you are – ATMs, gas stations, coffee shops, bars, hotels, hospitals, movie theaters and at the top of the list is the Apple retail stores because you know that’s more important than hospitals. It tells you the location of the nearest one and then gives out the map for how to get there.

Words and language I find fascinating, so this Dictionary and thesaurus app is a must for someone like me.  And just in case you have a problem with a pronouncing a word (everyone has to look up soigné, don’t they?) you can hear the word as well.

For some fun edit options for pictures you take with your phone, you can try the Photoshop Express App. Be warned this is not the fully loaded version, but it gets a lot done.

So have fun with these and share some of your fave apps as well.

1. Charlie bit my finger – again (192 million views) The cute quotient is undeniably vey high here; two adorable little brothers playing; one biting the other’s finger playfully, the other thinking it’s funny. For a while. Before “It really hurts!”
2. Evolution of Dance (143 million views) This one is such a classic, most of us have watched it at some point. Starting with Elvis Presley, this one is a medley of all the most popular tracks ever made!
3. Pitbull – I know you want me (121 million views) Rapper Pitbull’s track is foot tapping and hugely enjoyable. The video is average IMHO in spite of the voluptuous women; not really spectacular.
4. Laughing baby Hahaha (120 million views) Those of us who are parents have done this; enjoyed baby’s belly laugh by making silly sounds. A timeless classic; heartwarmingly adorable!
5. Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA (120 million views)
6. Miley Cyrus 7 Things music video (119 million views) I have to admit that I really don’t get how this kid is so hugely popular. Both tracks are nice, foot tapping and about girl power and everything, but 120 and 119 million views? “Whatever”, as they say…
7. Achmed the dead terrorist (112 million views) Jeff Dunham and his skeleton ventriloquist dummy, the non-terrifying terrorist-with-a turban are hilarious. Take the 10 minutes and watch this one if you haven’t
8. Lo que tu queiras oir (100 million views) I don’t know Spanish so I have no idea what this one is about but apparently it translates to Whatever You Want To Hear and is a Spanish language short drama by Guillermo Zapata. According to Wikipedia there is “Sofia”, who returns home to find a voicemail from her husband, “Miguel”, announcing that he has left her. Sofia is initially depressed, but decides to remix the voice-mail so that it sounds like Miguel telling her that he loves her and that he is sorry for leaving her and asking for forgiveness. Sofia then tells the remixed-voicemail that she will not take Miguel back
9. Susan Boyle (93 million views) This one is a classic about the plain Jane with an abiding talent made popular by reality shows and the youtube generation
10. Timbaland – Apologise (81 million views) Nice enough, albeit not a vastly original track, evidently famous enough for 81 million views!

TV Guide however, has this list, which puts Seinfeld right at the top as the Top TV show of all time. This is followed by I love Lucy, The Honeymooners, All in the Family, The Sopranos, 60 Minutes, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Simpsons, The Andy Griffith Show and Saturday Night Live. I have to admit that I was rather relieved to see that there are no reality TV shows in that list. I agree with a post I read here, that Reality TV is the nadir of TV.

ClassicTV.com has another list that includes more of my favorite shows. At the top are two of my favorites I Love Lucy and M.A.S.H. These are followed by Star Trek (this dates me a bit, but I can remember a time I used to love that show), The Andy Griffith Show, Cheers (still don’t mind watching the reruns) The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bewitched, The Twilight Zone and All in the Family.

Now here is a the longest running TV poll which declares the top TV shows as Firefly, Xena: Warrior Princess, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Battlestar Galactica (2004), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape, Jericho, Angel, Combat!, and The X-Files. Cannot say I fancy any of them all that much.

As for Forbes, they have a highest earning list, which of course has Chat Queen Oprah as TV’s highest earner, with $260 million earned in a year! Although Jerry Seinfeld’s show ended years ago, he is the second highest earning person on TV, thanks in large part to reruns and makes about $60 mil a year! Then there’s the acerbic Simon Cowell (No. 3 at $45 million), David Letterman (No. 4 at $40 million) and Jay Leno (No. 6 at $32 million). And just FYI Donald Trumps’ earning only from TV is $32 mil (his net worth is $3 Billion).

Well you know what they say, There’s No Business Like Show Business!

This basic three person tent I thought was rather cool, with camouflage print and all. For $42.88 (at a 28% discount) it seems to be a good deal. Check out a lot of fairly low priced tents and shower/shelter combos here.

This one is one of the better quality tents, lightweight and with 2 doors and two vestibules and sleeps 4. With a star gazing feature, I liked this one at $299, down from $339. Many more in this range if you want to take a look here.

A capacious but compact carry all backpack can be really invaluable while going camping and for that I liked this Trekking backpack for $49.99 (at a 50% discount).

A good sleeping bag of course is a must when you go camping and they come in many varieties of shape, size and the season, kind of weather and temperature that you require them for. Now this one seems a pretty good deal at $38.53 at a 30% discount. Comes equipped with a hood, this one is supposed to withstand 0 degree temperatures. I have to tell you though that the coffin-like shape of the bag makes me just a little bit squeamish and I keep feeling that there is no room for my legs to move about. But then I have not tried it so I really cannot say.

I have to admit that I like the thought of this sleeping bag for two, all cozy and comfy. It is full-length, with an anti-snag zipper, hood, draft collar and draft tube. Lots more discount sleeping bags for you to check out here.

So did I tempt some of you to go visit the great outdoors and commune with nature a bit? I hope I did!

So I found this site very interesting indeed, where they have a page full of free DVD offers, where you pay only for shipping and delivery. There are titles available such as The Amazing Human Body, Chemistry Experiments, Biology experiments, Frog Dissection, Easy Guitar and Easy Piano and also other titles like Easy Home Massage, Easy Yoga, Travel to France etc. I will admit I was tempted but decided against this for two reasons: if as a result of my gift, my niece blew up the house or singed her hair or liquefied her nails or something, I would never hear the end of it from her parents! Also if she decided to take up dissection on my instigation, her parents would be justified in being angry to see frog carcasses littered around the house. Secondly it is rather cheap to give a gift that you basically got for free (even if you did pay shipping). I actually like this kid you see J.

My niece actually enjoys watching discovery channel and the national geographic channel so I thought what better gift for her than this award winning Planet Earth DVD set, which is also available for a goodish discount (at $59.95, down from $79.95)! If you read the description of the set on the sale page, you really may be tempted to get it. I know that I will get this set, either for my niece or for myself, it sounds that wonderful!

Then I thought that maybe my niece, studious as she is, may appreciate some entertainment? I have heard her talk about the Narnia films without any disdain, so perhaps she may appreciate that? So this box set of three Narnia DVDs looked good go me at $24.99 (here is the catch, shipping is free only if your order is over $25, just to make you buy something else). All three films The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe/Prince Caspian & The Voyage of the Dawn Treader/The Silver Chair are included.

So I think I’m going to go with Narnia for my niece and get the Planet Earth set for yours truly!

I found a site that offers something that can be a great conversation starter. This site offers great wine glasses, beer mugs, coffee mugs, highball glasses, champagne glasses etc with small phrases and witty messages etched on them. The variety is huge according to the theme you may desire. Each set has four different phrases based on a theme, with the set of four of any variety available at $48. If you buy all three sets of any type, you are charged a discounted rate of $129 (a discount of $15 – thats just me, I have to look for discounts everywhere).

Here is a sample of some of the phrases on the etched glass – Drama Queen, Desperate Housewife, The Boss, Confused, Scholar, Big Shot, Hottie, Diva, Available, Taken, Chick Magnet, Gossip Queen, American Idle, Old Fart – you get the drift? You really must check out the site. There are a lot of themes including holidays, sports and even jewish.

You can even get a custom set made, but of course, the price goes up. Though that may not be necessary considering their huge collection. My favorite is their wine glass sets of the Fun and Flirty category. I think I’m gonna get some of those.

So get your guests to break the ice and make your parties a grand success.

I actually remember when I was in school and Michael Jackson won a record number of Grammys for his album Thriller, which was a top selling album and recently when I was listening to the unbeatable pop song Beat It! I was quite swamped with nostalgia! And I know that Thriller is the best selling album of all time, so I was curious to find out which were the top five selling albums of all time.

Say what you will about MJ, but he is the King of pop and he remains enthroned to this day, with his chart buster Thriller far and away the highest selling album of all time! The album has sold a whopping 108 million copies according to some estimates! No other album has sold even half as many! Great album IMHO.

Next is AC/DC’s Back In Black which has sold 42 million copies. I never listen to AC/DC so I won’t comment.

I was surprised to see that Whitney Houston’s (and other’s) OST The Bodyguard has sold as many albums, also 42 million; surprised but pleased! Whitney was at her sublime best in that album, with songs like And I will always love you and Don’t make me close one more door showcasing her tremendous range and vocal power.

Next with 41 million albums is Greatest Hits of the iconic Eagles. Their songs are all that is wonderful about rock music: great rhythms, great melodies, and just fabulous songs. Songs like Tequila Sunrise and Take it Easy are the stuff of legend!

Saturday Night Fever was an album we scorned when we were growing up because it was Disco, but as an adult I simply love those songs, Stayin Alive and How Deep Is Your Love are like all time fave Karaoke tracks!

I know this was supposed to be a top five list, but when No 6 is another one of my all time favorites, I had to include it: Pink Floyds’ iconic, revolutionary album The Dark Side of the Moon has also sold 40 million albums. What songs! Words fail me!

Now my source for the above numbers is Wiki, but I found a couple of other lists which I wanted to mention here: Rolling Stone’s definitive top 500 list, I was relieved to see a lot of my beloved Beatles albums mentioned and Ask Men has an interesting top 200 list with genre based top albums. Feel free to express your views about your fave albums too.

So when a began a quest for the top grossing films of all time, I found that only three films so far had grossed over $1 billion till date.

The top grossing film of all time and in the entire world is Titanic – the tragic love story revolving around the rich girl and the poor boy unfolding against the back drop of that most ill-fated and famous of all ships. Made back in 1997, it remains the top grosser to this day with $1,848,813,795.

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the fantasy extravaganza has a cult following around the world and this is reflected in the box office earnings of the film which is the second highest in history, at $1,119,263,306.

The third film to cross the 1 billion dollar mark and the third top earning film of all time is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest with $1,066,179,725.

Next on the list is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (released in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) with $976,475,550 and then is another Pirates of the Caribbean film: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End with $960,996,492. The Pirates series of films is quite an effective marketing gimmick; the films don’t really end in the sense that they have any closure and they kind of leave you thirsting for more, thereby ensuring that you watch the next episode to find out what happened next.

I have to confess, I have watched all of these films but I liked only the Titanic from among them and there is only one film among the top ten grossers of all time that I can claim to have truly and really enjoyed: Shrek 2 (which grossed $919,838,758).

Finding Nemo, The Da Vinci Code (the book was way, way better though) The Sixth Sense and Forrest Gump, I was very pleased to find in the list of top 50 films of all time.

Any of your fave films that you think should be in the top ten, or top twenty or top whatever which never achieved the success that you thought they should have?

I had to check out the bargain section of course, which is here; all comics listed here are at a discount and available for less than 50 cents. They also have an interesting gift section helpfully subdivided into whether you want to purchase for a child, friend or geek/nerd comic collector. Mycomicshop.com is also a good source of comic books, and I would think that their bestselling section could pretty much address any comic book shopping requirements that you may have.

Marvel comics, arguably the most successful comic publication have an iconic position in the comic book segment. Subscribing to the Spiderman comics thru the site will fetch you a 50% discount over the newsstand price. They have other interesting combo offers as well.

Image comics is another force to be reckoned with in the world of comics, and they, interestingly have this section where you can read one issue of all different comic series for free! I have to tell you though that the adventures and tales of The Cemetary Blues, Shark-man, Darkness, Witchblade and suchlike titles did not hold too much attraction so I cannot testify to how enriching (or not) the experience was.

Tell you what though, with all this surfing I did to find out about comic books, there is one conclusion that I have to draw: there is nothing remotely comical about comic books, they all seem to be only about a lot of teeth gnashing and violence and people with impossibly perfect bodies! I’ll just stick to Asterix and Tin Tin thank you very much!

This one is superbly funny and so very topical, seeing Obama and Hilary’s cutthroat race for the presidential spot disguised by thinly veiled animosity. You’re not likely to see the two of them sharing pool-space this cordially in real life.

This one is a bit sexist, but I have to admit that we women can be very vain sometimes.

Ah! The quality of mercy is most certainly strained these days, to misquote the good poet Milton. Not so many of us reach for our pockets to make a charitable contribution in these tough times.

And here is one that is one of my favorites: an attempt to find out about one of the great mysteries of life!

This one in not really money cartoon except for the way law suits are invariably linked to monetary settlements and awards. Really the law of torts especially in the US has reached the point of ridiculous; you have to be so careful with anything that you do lest you get sued for the slightest infraction or even oversight!

Petroleum prices being what they are per barrel these, days, this one is obviously outdated.

The money cartoons at cartoon stock are super, but are all copyrighted and way too expensive for me to reproduce here, so may I gently nudge you in that direction for several very hearty guffaws for free.

Another site which urged me to buy their admittedly great cartoons for a stiffish price is this one. I can’t resist at least describing this one: Couple of pastors are chatting. In the foreground is a hearse with a furniture trailer linked to it, and one pastor says to the other “I have always told my people ‘you can’t take it with you’; Harry must not have been listening“