Sparklette Magazine » Site News

Sparklette wishes you a Happy New Year! (Plus, a look back at 2011)

Veron Ang — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:00:51 +0000

With the start of a new year, I would like to use this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year! Thank you for visiting and supporting Sparklette throughout 2011, as many of you have consistently done for the past 8 years.

The team and I promise to deliver more goodies and quality articles in 2012!

Goodbye, 2011

Looking back at 2011, it has been a year of ups and downs (but there won’t be mention of the bad stuff here, I promise).

Earlier on, the official Sparklette iPhone app was launched with the help of my friend Michael. The app has been downloaded thousands of times and received glowing reviews from many of you.
Our team expanded, something I never imagined would happen when I first started this blog in 2003. It needed to be done as my work with Sparklette Studio was getting real busy. This paid off tremendously as the new writers, Jasper and Melissa, have grown to become vital assets to the team, and I’m grateful for their help.

Has 2011 been good for you? For me personally, it has been peppered with tribulations. At the end of it all, the only important things in life are love and health, so keep your loved ones close and spend time with them.

Regardless of how the past year has been, 2012 will be a brand new year of new energies and opportunities. I wish you a year filled with joy, love, good health and prosperity. Have a great one!

Head over to the archives section for a recap of all articles published in 2011.

A Very Nordic Christmas and New Year at Hilton Singapore
3,840

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Sponsor Love: Companies That Support Sparklette (May 2011)

Veron Ang — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 08:00:17 +0000

It takes plenty of resources to continually bring you fresh content, restaurant reviews and contest giveaways. This would not be possible without the following companies and friends that support Sparklette.

I would like to thank all valued sponsors and partners for the month of May 2011, and tell you a little about their background. Please support them by checking out their websites, products and services.

AsiaMalls

The AsiaMalls has lined up a series of fun food and culinary activities throughout the month of May 27 to June 26, 2011. The Food on Parade event takes place at its six shopping malls: Hougang Mall, Tampines 1, Tiong Bahru Plaza, Century Square, White Sands and Liang Court. You can take part in cooking competitions and learn culinary skills from prominent chefs. For the younger ones, they can participate in the fun Little Chef workshops.

Events calendar of 6 malls

Hotel Re!

Hotel Re! is a modern retro-themed boutique hotel perched on Pearl’s Hill. Their rooms feature the pop culture of the 60′s and the 70′s, decorated with eclectic motifs of stars like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. Re!Fill, the hotel’s flagship restaurant serves daily themed set meals that I personally love and have highly recommended even before they became a sponsor.

Follow Hotel Re! on Twitter and Facebook.

Bahama Beach Club

Fancy a beach vacation? Try the Bahama Beach Club, a tropical resort in the Bahamas. You will be staying at a condominium facing the clear waters of the Bahamian Sea. Enjoy activities like golf, fishing, snorkelling and diving at the world’s third longest barrier reef!

Follow Bahama Beach Club on Twitter and Facebook.

TravelerQA

TravelerQA gives you an exclusive platform to find the best travel deals, ask travel questions and get answers.

Follow TravelerQA on Twitter.

Michael Cheng

My talented developer friend, Michael Cheng spent many weeks coding the Sparklette iPhone app with the designs that I created. We successfully launched the free app in May 2011, amassing thousands of downloads within weeks.

Follow Michael on Twitter.

Book your holiday accommodation online with Agoda, a website that I use to make all my hotel reservations. They have built us a nice hotel search engine on Sparklette so you and I can all find a hotel easily and conveniently from here.

Follow Saad on Twitter.

MaxCDN is a Content Delivery Network that helps power Sparklette by serving all our scripts, stylesheets and images from their servers all over the world.

Follow MaxCDN on Twitter and Facebook.

Giveaway Sponsors

Advertise on Sparklette

You can help power Sparklette in a variety of ways:

Provide products for review. (food/gadgets/electronics/lifestyle)
Sponsor an article.
Sponsor prizes for a contest giveaway.
Purchase one of the prominent banner ads available site-wide.

If you would like your brand and products to be seen by more than 200,000 people each month, contact us to kick-start your marketing campaign.

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/sponsor-love-may-2011/ | Leave a comment

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We’re Hiring Food Writers/Bloggers!

Veron Ang — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:00:17 +0000

Do you love dining out and telling your friends about your experience?

Do you enjoy taking photographs of your food conquests and sharing them with the world?

Do you own an existing blog and update it regularly with food-related news and reviews?

Sparklette is on the hunt for new food writers, and we’re pretty sure at least one of you reading will be perfect for the role.

This is a paid position. You would be working from home. Remuneration will be determined based on the workload you wish to take on and your level of experience.

Who should apply

You should apply if:

You have an existing food blog, or a blog with some food-related articles.
You have a strong grasp of English grammar, punctuation, and spelling and actually enjoy writing.
You have a good culinary vocabulary.
You own a camera and can take decent pictures with it.
You don’t mind perks like free food tastings and occasional freebies.
You can deliver at least 1 quality article a week, of minimum 150-200 words and 3 pictures.

I am especially looking for topics related to food and dining out, including and not limited to

Restaurant reviews (for eg. Porn’s Thai restaurant, Concorde Hotel buffet and Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits)
Food product reviews (for eg. Prima Taste laksa and Royce’ chocolate)
List-style articles (for eg. 10 vegetarian restaurants and 6 rice dumplings)
Fun food-related articles (for eg. Most memorable movie food scenes)

How to apply

To apply, email editor [at] sparklette [dot] net with the following information and include the words “Application for writer position” in the subject:

Full name
Year of birth
1 or 2 original writing samples of the type of content you would be contributing (links to your website are fine)
Website link, if any
Number of articles you can contribute in a month, and expected pay

Are you our next food writer?

Note: Due to the overwhelming responses, you may not hear from us unless we’re interested in hiring you. Thank you for applying.

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/we-are-hiring/ | Leave a comment

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Sponsor Love: Companies That Support Sparklette (April 2011)

Veron Ang — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:35:37 +0000

I would like to thank all valued sponsors and partners for the month of April 2011, and tell you a little about their background. Please support them by checking out their websites, products and services.

Reebonz City

The shopaholics amongst you are probably already very familiar with Reebonz. The members-only shopping club holds private sales of luxury brands, making them available at affordable prices. The Reebonz City extension offers more deals in retail, dining, health and wellness, travel and other activities.

Reebonz also sponsored S$250 worth of shopping credits in our April giveaway.

Follow Reebonz on Twitter and Facebook.

Hotel Re!

Follow Hotel Re! on Twitter and Facebook.

Bahama Beach Club

Follow Bahama Beach Club on Twitter and Facebook.

JuzToday

JuzToday brings you daily deals from restaurants and fun activities such as scuba diving and mountain biking. Right now, you can make full use of their S$20 coupon to indulge in a buffet lunch or dinner at the Indian Times fine dining restaurant in East Coast Park. The buffet usually costs S$53.70.

Follow JuzToday on Twitter and Facebook.

Without Saad Kamal‘s generous hosting and tireless support, there would be no site here. Saad is an internet marketing expert who shares various tips on search marketing and social media on his website. It’s been an absolute privilege learning from him personally. And trust me, I have learned loads.

Follow Saad Kamal on Twitter.

Giveaway Sponsors

KungFu Paradise – Giveaway: 5x $30 dining vouchers

Advertise on Sparklette

You can help power Sparklette in a variety of ways:

Provide products for review. (food/gadgets/electronics/lifestyle)
Sponsor an article.
Sponsor prizes for a contest giveaway.
Purchase one of the prominent banner ads available site-wide.

If you would like your brand and products to be seen by more than 200,000 people each month, contact us to kick-start your marketing campaign.

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/sponsor-love-april-2011/ | Leave a comment

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The Sparklette iPhone App is Here!

Veron Ang — Sun, 01 May 2011 10:57:02 +0000

Over the past few months, we have been working very hard on the official Sparklette iPhone app. It has been a three-month labour of love and we’re so happy that the app is finally launched! You can download it for free from the iTunes App Store.

Instead of creating a simple reader app, we wanted it to be a more powerful extension of the website. Not only can you view all the latest articles, you can also browse hundreds of Singapore restaurant and food reviews sorted by cuisine, dish, meal, ambience and even location in one handy little app. No more wondering where to go or what to eat when you have this app right in your pocket!

All the things you like about Sparklette dining reviews, such as photos and chicken drumstick ratings have been retained. Most of the reviews are loaded with the restaurant’s phone number so that you can call them directly from your iPhone. Plus, the restaurant’s location is also conveniently linked to the iPhone’s built-in Maps application so you know how to get there.

Update: Apple has featured our app in the New & Noteworthy section!

Features:
- Browse by cuisine, dish, meal, ambience and more
- Browse by location (Orchard, Jurong West…) and by shopping mall (ION Orchard, VivoCity…)
- View gorgeous photos, prices and star ratings loaded into each review
- Call the restaurant directly from your iPhone
- View the restaurant’s location in Maps
- View latest article updates from Sparklette.net
- Search all articles
- Pull to refresh the screen
- Read later with Instapaper

Requirements:
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Download the free Sparklette App here

Credits

This app was created with the help of my talented developer friend, Michael Cheng. While I designed most of it, it was Michael who painstakingly did all the coding, endured my nit-picky changes and built the entire app through many late nights and cups of coffee. Mad props to him!

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/sparklette-iphone-app/ | 4 comments

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Sponsor Love: Companies That Support Sparklette (March 2011)

Veron Ang — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:00:24 +0000

I would like to thank all valued sponsors and partners for the month of March 2011, and tell you a little about their background. Please support them by checking out their websites, products and services.

Outlet

Outlet is a website where you can enjoy daily deals for restaurants, holidays, flights, as well as beauty, recreational and shopping deals. What differentiates Outlet from other group buying sites is the amount of detail that goes into each deal. Every deal includes a highly comprehensive write-up accompanied by large gorgeous pictures.

You can create a free account to receive the Outlet newsletter. So whenever there’s a new deal in town, you would be among the first to know.

Follow Outlet on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

Lenovo Singapore

Lenovo builds an extensive lineup of computers that includes laptops, netbooks, desktops and accessories. The company’s “What’s Your Idea of Fun” worldwide campaign highlights its new systems that are designed to make computing more enjoyable and affordable. Learn more about these technology solutions and find the most fun PC for you on the What’s Your Idea of Fun website.

Lenovo Singapore sponsored our trip for two to Thailand in March. You can check out the sights and eats in the Chiang Mai, Thailand travel series, made possible by the powerful Lenovo computer systems.

Follow Lenovo Singapore on Twitter and Facebook.

Hotel Re!

Hotel Re! also sponsored 3 pairs of the set meals, worth S$41.60++ a pair, in our March giveaway.

Follow Hotel Re! on Twitter and Facebook.

Reebonz City

Follow Reebonz on Twitter and Facebook.

WeightLossTriumph.com

WeightLossTriumph.com is a source of coupons and reviews for proven weight loss programs including a Medifast coupon and Nutrisystem discount code.

Travel Tips Network

Travel Tips Network brings you the latest travel news and special deals from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Vietnam through a network of 6 sites. From now to April 25, 2011, you can join their giveaway to win US$600 hotel credit that can be used to book any hotel room throughout the world on Agoda.

Follow Travel Tips Network on Twitter and Facebook.

JuzToday

JuzToday brings you daily deals from restaurants and fun activities such as scuba diving and mountain biking. Right now, you can make full use of their S$5 deal to purchase an ayam penyet set that usually costs S$10 from Waroeng Penyet. Apart from the chicken and rice, the deal includes crackers and cucumber juice.

Follow JuzToday on Twitter and Facebook.

Follow Saad Kamal on Twitter.

Advertise on Sparklette

You can help power Sparklette in a variety of ways:

Sponsor an article
Sponsor prizes for a contest giveaway
Purchase one of the prominent banner ads available site-wide

The smallest 125×125 banners are currently sold out for April, but banners in other sizes are still available. If you would like your brand and products to be seen by more than 200,000 people each month, contact us to kick-start your marketing campaign.

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/sponsor-love-march-2011/ | Leave a comment

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Sponsor Love: Companies That Support Sparklette (Dec 2010 – Feb 2011)

Veron Ang — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 06:30:46 +0000

I would like to thank all valued sponsors and partners for the quarter of Dec 2010 – Feb 2011, and tell you a little about their background. Please support them by checking out their websites, products and services.

Hotel Re!

Follow Hotel Re! on Twitter and Facebook.

Fresh Baked Web is a digital marketing agency by Sparklette reader Bernie Chew that helps companies build web presence using a range of online marketing campaigns, social media, online community building and more.

Follow Fresh Baked Web on Twitter and Facebook.

Follow Saad Kamal on Twitter.

Giveaway Sponsors

Advertise on Sparklette

If you would like your brand and products to be seen by more than 200,000 people each month, contact us for the Sparklette media kit and rate card. I am especially looking for companies and restaurants to make full use of the prominent banner ads available site-wide and/or to sponsor giveaways and contests.

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/sponsor-love-dec-2010-feb-2011/ | Leave a comment

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Sponsor Love: Companies That Support Sparklette (November 2010)

Veron Ang — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 03:00:59 +0000

2010 has been an especially awesome year for this little site. In the past month Sparklette saw some great momentum, maintaining a consistent daily traffic of 7,000, and exceeding 9,000 visitors on certain days. Now that’s a new record, all thanks to you sweet readers!

I would like to thank all valued sponsors and partners for the month of November 2010, and tell you a little about their background. Please support them by checking out their websites, products and services.

Hotel Re!

This December, they are offering a great festive set meal at $23.80++ that includes the very juicy grilled beef tenderloin with foie gras red wine sauce pictured above.

Follow Hotel Re! on Twitter and Facebook.

Lenovo Singapore

Lenovo Singapore has sponsored some generous gifts for a couple of giveaways that I am running, and I’m already looking forward to running more. Take part in my Christmas Giveaway #1 where you can win USB devices, and score bonus points to win the new Lenovo IdeaPad U460 laptop that I’m giving away this month!

Follow Lenovo Singapore on Twitter and Facebook.

My Vintage Jewel Box

My Vintage Jewel Box is a pretty online store that sells thoughtfully handcrafted jewellery by the very talented Lauryn Tang. Her pieces are always so classy and elegant!

For this month, Lauryn is giving away her gorgeous stacking rings pictured above, engraved with any name you like. Simply Like My Vintage Jewel Box on Facebook and leave a comment on this photo with the word you would love to see on your ring. For example, SPARKLETTE. The comment with the most Likes wins the rose gold ring and 3 runner-ups win the silver ring!

Follow My Vintage Jewel Box on Facebook.

Without Saad Kamal‘s generous hosting and tireless support (once, he even got up at 3am to help me get the site up), there would be no site here. Saad is an internet marketing expert who shares various tips on search marketing and social media on his website. It’s been an absolute privilege learning from him personally. And trust me, I have learned loads.

Follow Saad Kamal on Twitter.

Guest Bloggers

I would also like to give a shout out to Joyce, Jasper and Razlan for contributing excellent content to Sparklette. Write to us if you would like to guest blog on Sparklette and be read by thousands of readers.

Advertise on Sparklette

If you would like your brand and products to be seen by more than 200,000 people each month, contact us for more information. I am especially looking for companies and restaurants to advertise and/or to sponsor giveaways and contests. Banner ad spots in various standard sizes are available for grabs.

For now, dear readers and wonderful sponsors, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Have a great December!

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/sponsor-love-nov-2010/ | Leave a comment

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Vote for Sparklette in the WordPress Showcase!

Veron Ang — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:21:24 +0000

Guess what, people? Sparklette.net has been featured in the official WordPress Showcase!

How WordPress selects the websites:

Blogs and web sites powered by WordPress that make it into the Showcase are typically doing one or more of the following:
Using WordPress in a unique or innovative way.
Attracting tens of thousands of regular readers.
Being written by someone famous or especially notable in his or her particular field.
Representing a notable organization, government entity, or corporation as an official blog or web site.

If you like my site and would like to show your support, please give it a 5 star rating to help move it up to Top 10. Many thanks!

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/wordpress-showcase/ | 8 comments

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Sparklette 2.0

Veron Ang — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:20:40 +0000

After 3 long years, Sparklette has undergone an overhaul! That’s a long time for a website like this. Aside from the obvious cosmetic differences, here are a few of the changes:

Improved categorisation of content

Find what you need in a quicker time!

Food reviews are now sorted according to cuisine.
Travel articles are sorted according to city.

“Better” content is highlighted

Featured section: This new section on the main page highlights the more noteworthy articles based on their appeal and content.
Popular articles: Ever wondered what other people are reading? Listed in the sidebar are the most read articles in the past week.

Interactive features

Weekly poll: Something fun that we can all take part in!
Top commentators: Readers who left the most comments in the past 30 days are highlighted, along with links to their blogs. So start commenting now!

Experimental features

Facebook integration: If you have a Facebook account, you can log in here and gain access as a Sparklette member. When you leave a comment here, it is automatically published on your Facebook account.

Photo galleries (members only): Once in a while, I get angry email from readers asking why I didn’t blog about their favourite dishes at Restaurant Y. Well, you can now add on to the content by contributing your own pictures. So if you find that my photos suck, feel free to add your own! All contributors are credited with a link back to their blog. Free traffic for bloggers, and for those that don’t blog, a place for you to showcase your photos.
Here’s an example.

Well, I’ll leave the rest for you to find out! There are some more features in the pipeline, especially for members (it’s free!). Bear with me while I tidy up some of the loose ends and glitches. I hope you like this new version of Sparklette.

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/sparklette-2point0/ | 24 comments

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Best of Sparklette 2009

Veron Ang — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:40:12 +0000

This has been a great year for me in so many different ways, and that includes this blog, too.

As the year draws to an end, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight the most read posts and active commentators on Sparklette for 2009.

At this moment a revamp of Sparklette is in the works. I don’t have a confirmed date for the launch as I am juggling this along with several clients’ projects. But I would love it if anyone would like to test-drive Sparklette 2.0. Interested? You can register here. When the site is ready, you would be amongst the first to get a sneak preview before it is rolled out to everyone else. (More details at the end of this post.)

For now, here’s the best of Sparklette 2009.

Some statistics: 1,762,298 people visited Sparklette in 2009, or 4,828 a day. A total of 113 articles and 3,696 comments were published.

Top 3 Series

1. Bangkok travelogue: Start from Day 1
2. Siem Reap travelogue: Start from Day 1
3. Christmas Tree of the Day 2009: Start from Day 1

Top 10 Commentators

1. Melissa – 54 comments
2. Edmund – 38 comments
3. Nicholas – 29 comments
4. Kyo – 23 comments
5. Fei – 23 comments
6. proud mom to maximus – 22 comments
7. py – 16 comments
8. XWings – 13 comments
9. vinsion – 11 comments
10. pkchukiss – 11 comments

Preview Sparklette 2.0

2.0 would feature a brand new design that is more structured and minimal, and less graphic-intensive. When I work on clients’ websites under my web development business, new ideas often pop up. What better way than to experiment using my own blog, right?

One of the planned features in 2.0 is allowing visitors to upload their own photographs and links to their own blogs. For example, I post a review of a certain restaurant X that I visited recently. Some of you may have also reviewed X at your own blog. You would be able to upload your own photos here along with links to your blog/review. This way, visitors that come on here to read about X also get to visit other blogs that have talked about X.

That is just one of the features in the pipeline. I intend to do a soft launch for members to gather feedback. If you are interested, you can register here and I would send word when it is ready.

Note: Registration should take you less than 30 seconds. After you choose your user name and provide an email address, a randomly generated password would be sent to your email. When you have logged in successfully for the first time, don’t forget to change your password.

Ready? Great!

“Take me to the registration page now!”

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/best-of-sparklette-2009/ | 12 comments

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Thank You for the Gift of Hosting

Veron Ang — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:47:31 +0000

Yes, Sparklette is saved!

On Tuesday, I posted about the imminent danger of this website being forced to shut down. Immediately, my Twitter stream and email were inundated with retweets and messages offering help and support. A surprising good number offered free hosting. I realised just how fortunate I am to have a ready network of resourceful and savvy people that are keen to help.

Thank you

Lucian, the wonderful guy that he is and a firm supporter of Singapore bloggers, went out of his way to sponsor a whole year of free grid hosting — no strings attached. Thank you. Previously, Lucian also rendered his kind assistance when our friend Kevin Lim, a fellow Singaporean blogger, had his thousand dollar bill shocker.

I also wish to thank you for spreading the word, offering me great advice, and just simply caring: skinnylatte, Santoso, hwsoh, amourchaleur, chuyeow, litford, GrowlyBear, nanyate, victortan, patlaw, claudia10, tangenghui, luthieawu, darkholme, littleredbus, nimopress, imknight, soyuzno, hongkiat, pixeldeath, nickpan, metacole, dregar, Kidtalentz.

Then there are the following individuals, an exceptional group, who are willing to go the extra mile:

Saad Kamal, for offering his private dedicated server and loads of expert advice
U-Zyn, for his enthusiasm in getting me on board his cloud hosting solution
Kevin Lee, for kindly letting me share his unused bandwidth
Martyn Hunter, for writing to the Singapore government to sponsor a needy small-time blogger (me)
Anton, for offering to help with hosting
Someone who wishes to remain anonymous, for volunteering to host me

More than anything, I am deeply comforted and moved by your show of support for this website. Thank you!

Moving on

Right now my main priority is to keep the site running. The past couple of days was spent migrating my entire website and database to my new host. It’s been working well, although I’m a little concerned about overusing server resources, not unlike Kevin’s experience with the same host. So far I have encountered a few database connection errors during peak hours. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this works.

This episode is an example of a challenge that bloggers may face. In between sourcing for materials, providing fresh content regularly and responding to user feedback, there is plenty that goes on behind the scene. When I think about it, I probably spend more time and energy keeping the website up and running than providing the actual meat. It shouldn’t be this way.

After this, I am keeping an eye on the website performance. A new design would be coming up shortly that is minimal in graphics.

If anyone is willing to take a look at my WordPress site to see how it can be further optimised in terms of code and queries, please drop me a note and I would be keen to set up an account for you. Maybe we can even learn a thing or two from each other!

Sparklette Needs Your Help!
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Sparklette Needs Your Help!

Veron Ang — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:41:19 +0000

Update: Many generous offers came in moments after this post went up. Thanks to some truly wonderful people, I think we’ll be fine after all!

Sparklette sees 5,000 unique visitors daily or 150,000 visitors monthly, and is a member of the 9rules premium blog network. It is a Google PR5 website and has been around since 2003.

I don’t normally ask for help over here. But this time it is urgent. I am looking for someone who is willing to host this website, Sparklette.net, for free in exchange for permanent advertising for his/her company.

Since March 2009, Sparklette has been hosted on a dedicated server with Site5. It’s a barter trade; they provide me with hosting, I provide them with advertising. ~~That’s the big banner you see on the right and the link in the footer.~~

As the number of visitors to this website grew, the load on the server increased and at times, the website went down. To their credit, Site5 has always provided wonderful tech support during the downtime. But their server can’t support my high-traffic site anymore. The Site5 CEO contacted me about 12 days ago and asked me to upgrade to an expensive server which I can’t afford. He gave me 10 days to think about it.

In those 10 days, I made various adjustments to my site. To the tech-inclined, this includes reducing the number of database queries per page by more than half. I even signed up for a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Stephen from MaxCDN, very graciously offered his company’s CDN service for free in exchange for a tiny footer link.

These efforts paid off, because in those 10 days, the site didn’t go down once and load time improved tremendously. After 10 days, Site5 agreed that there is no need to upgrade my server. I was relieved.

Then came yesterday, the time of the week when everyone gets back to work and site traffic is the highest. My site went down twice for about 5 minutes each time. I monitor this using BinaryCanary. Not missing a beat, Site5 contacted me again and told me to pay a setup fee and upgrade to a USD135/month server or find a new host within 10 days. Just in time for Christmas!

At this present moment, there is no way I can afford to pay that amount to put this site on a dedicated server. Unfortunately that may mean that this site goes Poof! in 10 days. That is why I am asking here:

If you or you know of anyone who may be interested to host this website along with a few small project sites on a dedicated server, I would appreciate it very much if you would please contact me. In exchange I can offer permanent advertising for the hosting company.

Thank you for reading this. Sparklette needs all the help we can get. Please pass this on to anyone whom you think may be able to help.

Thank You for the Gift of Hosting
1,153

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Looking for the List of Restaurants That Do Not Serve Free Water?

Veron Ang — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:47:57 +0000

Hello to all you Sunday Times readers in Singapore, who may have found your way here after reading today’s article in the paper.

If you are arriving here for the first time, a big, warm welcome to you! My name is Veron, and I am a blogger in my free time. This blog, Sparklette, is developed single-handedly, dedicated to helping people locate the best and most interesting restaurants in Singapore. All this is built purely based on my own dining experiences.

Of course, it won’t be peaches and cream all the time. Occasionally, I may blog about the darker side of things, such as unpleasant dining experiences.

Looking for the much talked about list of restaurants that do not serve water? Here it is:

If you like what you read here, you can subscribe to my future blog posts through my rss feed, via email (on my sidebar), or follow me on twitter.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Much love,
Veron

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/restaurants-that-do-not-serve-water2/ | 19 comments

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Singapore Blog Awards: Best Design – Vote for Sparklette!

Veron Ang — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:58:39 +0000

The omy Singapore blog awards are on and sparklette.net is a finalist in the best design category!

If you consider this blog to be of good design and would like to support me, please vote for Sparklette. It would really mean a lot to me if I could win this award.

And yes, voting is open to all worldwide visitors. For non-singaporeans, simply fill in your own identification number under I/C number.

Voting is on from now ’til July 31. Lucky voters would get to win travel packages. You can vote once per day in each category, so please vote everyday if you can!

Thanks! I can really use your support :)

Much love,
Veron

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/omy-singapore-blog-awards/ | 31 comments

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The 2008 Bloggies – Vote sparklette.net for Best Asian Blog!

Veron Ang — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:32:02 +0000

Hi readers!

Surprise, surprise! The nominees for the eighth annual weblog awards a.k.a. the 2008 bloggies have been announced. Sparklette has been nominated in the “best Asian weblog” category! vote me for a bloggie, will ya? I have never been in the running for one before and I would so love to win it!

Voting is simple enough:

1. Visit the 2008 bloggies.

2. Vote for your favourite websites in one or more categories. Sparklette is in the “best Asian weblog” category.

3. Enter your email address at the bottom of the page (image verification required) and hit submit!

4. Don’t forget to check your email afterwards for an acknowledgment message. Click the link in the email to verify your vote. That’s it!

Voting starts now and will close at 10pm (est) on Thursday, January 31. Only a week left to vote! Your support would be much, much appreciated. Thank you so much!

Much love,
Veron

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/2008-bloggies/ | 16 comments

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September 2007 – Post Highlights

Veron Ang — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:21:31 +0000

Y.R.A. Aspirasa – Awesome Ayam Penyet! — Ever since the advent of the wildly popular ayam penyet (smashed fried chicken) from Indonesia, many Indonesian and Muslim eateries have started selling the dish here. Of the numerous ones I have tried, my personal favourite can be found at ABC Market.

Best Satay – Literally the Best Satay — besides ayam penyet, another favoured hawker-type food of mine is definitely satay (meat skewers)! For 5 years I have been patronising stalls 7 and 8 at Lau Pa Sat, where both the food and service exceed expectations!

Pretty Young Things — Talented photographer, Sabine Rath, does a remarkable job of capturing the most innocent moments of her kittens. Check out this series of photographs and squeal at the cute overload!

Grill-Out at Sunset Way – Sunset Grill — after holland village, Rochester Park, and the increasingly crowded Dempsey Road, where else can you find a hot dining enclave? The answer is Sunset Way! With its slew of 9 brand new restaurants, there is something for everyone.

Raffles Hotel: Snow-skin Mooncake with Champagne Truffle & Ganache — To celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, I featured several unique and exotic mooncakes in a 3-parter series, with the champagne truffle mooncakes from Raffles Hotel as the first parter. Here are parts 2 and 3. And don’t forget the e-card!

Where in the World is This Miniature Model? — I found an incredibly detailed miniature model of Singapore in the mid-18th century. In the model, there are tiny human figurines going about their daily business, such as coolies unloading goods from junks, people playing cards by the shoreline, and spectators watching an opera show. Can you guess where I found it?

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August 2007 – Post Highlights

Veron Ang — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:51:43 +0000

Usually at the end of each month, I would do a roundup of the most interesting and popular posts in that particular month. For August, the 11-parter series I blogged for my trip to Japan happened to be the most read blog posts. Here’s a summary:

Japan (Day 1) – Arrival in Tokyo — we arrived in Tokyo and realised that the Japanese spoke startlingly little English! Luckily many Japanese restaurants display plastic food replicas outside. Check out the interesting way in which we ordered our food despite not knowing a single word of Japanese!
Japan (Day 2) – Tokyo Disneyland — our first trip to Disneyland, ever! Even in the hot Japan summer heat, we spent the whole day in this beautiful theme park, marveling at all the pretty buildings and taking various rides. Picture galore!
Japan (Day 3) – Shibuya, Gay Parade & Ginza — Shibuya is a very popular shopping district where you can find beautiful people and hip and trendy clothing. Ginza, on the other hand, is a highly upmarket shopping district. Surprise of the day: chancing upon a full-fledged gay parade!
Japan (Day 4) – Shibuya & Tokyo Tower — ahhh… Tokyo tower, one of the most beautiful sights in Tokyo itself. At the observatory, we got a great panoramic view of the city at night. On my way back to the hotel, I lost all the shopping I had done for the day in the cab!
Japan (Day 5) – Harajuku — I travelled solo on this day, visiting Harajuku, the favourite haunt of cosplayers. Most fruitful outcome of the day: getting myself some rare vintage Care Bear merchandise at a little shop over there.
Japan (Day 6) – Sanrio Puroland & Takahatafudo — I ventured out of the city and paid a visit to the land of kawaii-ness — Sanrio Puroland, home of Hello Kitty! I also went to Takahatafudo, a suburb, where I dropped by a prominent Buddhist temple.
Japan (Day 7) – Marunouchi, Sony Building & Odaiba — during my last full day in Japan, I explored Marunouchi, the financial district of Tokyo, played with gadgets at the Sony building, and visited Odaiba, a large entertainment island off Tokyo bay.
Japan (Day 8) – Kyoto, Part 1 — took the bullet train to Kyoto where I would be spending the next couple of days. Saw traditional wooden houses and climbed a long uphill slope to the world famous temple — kiyomizu-dera, a world heritage site.
Japan (Day 9) – Kyoto, Part 2 — picture-taking at the architecturally remarkable Kyoto station, Doraemon exhibition, castle visits, geisha sightings. Need I say more? This is one of the most fruitful days on the trip.
Japan (Day 10) – Ueno — back in Tokyo for the last night (to catch the flight back to Singapore the following morning), we stayed in a hostel where we mingled with a bunch of cool people staying there. We also shopped at Ueno and dropped by Hard Rock Café!
Japan (Day 11) – Homebound — 11 days passed by so quickly! We had to say goodbye to Japan already and almost missed our flight early in the morning! Home sweet home :) it’s been an incredible holiday to an incredible country.

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July 2007 – Post Highlights

Veron Ang — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 04:24:24 +0000

Hawt Kevin with His Hawt Pocket PDA — in this impromptu video recording at a pasta restaurant, my friend Kevin who’s also a very hawt and popular technology blogger shares with me the features of his awesome pda phone. The phone has numerous motion-sensor features that will blow your mind away!
Navy Open House Ad – Impressive Pixel Art — I interviewed ari, one of the three talented artists behind an incredible piece of pixel art done for the Singapore navy open house. Ari sheds some light on what it takes to create this highly detailed form of art.
Ping.sg First Anniversary – Sparklette Thanks You! — popular local community metablog, Ping.sg, celebrated its first year anniversary recently. At the blog awards ceremony, Sparklette won 2 awards — “Best Blog Design” and “Blog of the Year”!
Sparklette – Layouts from Past to Present — I showcased 10 past layouts that I have designed for this blog before, dating back to 2002! There are screenshots and descriptions on how I came to design each and every single layout.
Sparklette on iPhone! — paddy tan of bak2u imported a few sets of the much coveted Apple iPhone to Singapore! At a private previewing session, we got to touch, feel and use this sleek and glossy phone.
Singapore HeritageFest 2007 — this heritage event took place over a period of 12 days. The anchor exhibition at Suntec City Mall showcased several antiques of Singapore in her yesteryears. I dedicated 2 posts to the exhibition — Part 1: Household Things and Part 2: Childhood Memories

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Ping.sg First Anniversary – sparklette.net Thanks You!

Veron Ang — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:02:17 +0000

Yesterday was a special, special day. Not only was it 070707 (July 7, 2007) where many couples chose to tie the knot, it was also the day when popular local community metablog, ping.sg celebrated its first anniversary.

Ping.sg is rather special to me personally. I remember it was about 8 months ago that U-Zyn, the big boss of Ping.sg, approached me to give the website a redesign. I agreed immediately because I love the concept of the website, and saw its potential.

At the Ping.sg first anniversary party yesterday, U-Zyn announced that the website has grown beyond a 1000-strong community. That’s no mean feat! (at the party, U-Zyn also disclosed that the idea for Ping.sg was conceived when he was alone in his bedroom one day. Now we know how some big ideas are born.)

This party was the first big event of Ping.sg. We found sponsors, a suitable venue, had food and door gifts catered for, and a fun socialising session, plus booze at Brewerkz! Sure, there were hiccups along the way, but it was a great party for a first-time effort considering no one in the organising committee had any prior experience in managing or organising events of this scale.

A fun awards ceremony was threw in to reward bloggers from the community. Out of the 11 blog categories, there were interesting ones such as “most entertaining blog”, “most controversial blog” or “most insightful blog post”.

A few posts ago, I had ~~shamelessly~~ rallied for your votes in the 3 categories that Sparklette had been nominated for — “Best Blog Design”, “Most Entertaining Post” and “Most Insightful Post”!

I’m pleased to announce that Sparklette won the awards for “Best Blog Design” and in addition, “Blog of the Year“!

I have no words, but to thank my supporters and all the people who voted for me! As for winning the “Blog of the Year” award, I totally didn’t see it coming. I believe my exact words when I went up to receive my award were “i really want to thank my supporters and all the people who voted for me! I totally didn’t see it coming.”

Haha thanks folks! I love y’all so, so very much :)

070707 was a special day. You made it special. The awards do not belong to me — they belong to all of you.

Much love,
Veron

(A quick shout-out to the peeps I got to finally meet and speak with at yesterday’s party: paddy of bak2u, josh of advertlets, talented web designer aen, local entrepreneur bjorn, and long-time blog supporters daphne and nay min thu.)

View the original article and join the discussion at:
http://sparklette.net/news/pingsg-first-anniversary-sparklettenet-thanks-you/ | 33 comments

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