LUMOS, a Singapore-based brand, has released a new version of their best-selling LUMOS home cinema projector, the LUMOS FLOAT. It comes three years after the original affordable home projector hit the market. And this new iteration is sexier—lighter, slimmer, more versatile, and even comes in three colors. Let’s see if it still retains the quality of the original in its new package.

I’m really not a tablet guy. The only tablet I owned was an Apple iPad a decade or so ago. And even that didn’t last, I quickly sold it off, finding no need for it in my life—my smartphone was more than enough for me.

That, however, was back then. Now in my forties, my eyesight hasn’t been the same as it was during my younger days. Glasses now sit above my nose—the texts on my phone swimmingly blurs and hurts my eyes on long reads. Rediscovering my love for reading books—now on its electronic form—I hanker for something better than my smartphone for my nightly book-reading sessions before heading off to dreamland.

I was actually debating on getting a dedicated eBook reader or a tablet. I was leaning on the latter, since it’s more versatile—I can watch movies, browse the Net, do social media, and all that, on a colored screen too—however, the ease of reading on the paper-like E Ink screens was also a big factor. That decision, however, was decided for me by LUMOS when they sent their latest tablet for review.

Goodbye, Kindle. Goodbye, Kobo. Hello, LUMOS Tablet.

For years, I have always been unconcerned about my health since even though I’m overweight, I have never once felt anything out of the ordinary. Until I decided to have an actual full physical exam. The results were all marked in red—my body, it turns out, was in terrible shape. And that got me to start my fitness journey—I calorie-counted, removed red meat as much as I could from my diet, added more greens on my plate, and exercised daily.

After a year, my health started to normalize. My blood sugar, uric acid, and cholesterol count went down, and I lost weight. However, I’m still unsatisfied with my current weight—a little over the BMI standard—so, I still exercise daily.

I usually alternate between doing static step-up exercise inside the house and walking 10,000 steps outside. With all these, I usually just use my phone to count my steps and the calories I burn. Pretty limited, since it can’t really read my body stats like heart rate and all that.

That was until I was given a chance to use the Samsung Galaxy Fit3. It just might be the perfect smartwatch that can help me achieve my desired body weight. I received the Galaxy Fit3 just right before BG, Kid A, and I embarked on an eleven-day trip to Baguio City—the perfect place to test it out since it’s gonna be one heck of a walkathon for us.

➤ CHECK OUT: BAGUIO TRAVEL GUIDE

I woke up to the sound of breakfast. We were several thousands of feet in the air—the houses on the green plain below looked like little plastic ones I used to play with on Monopoly as a kid. On deck, Scoot’s crew, in their signature yellow and black uniforms were already distributing hot meals to passengers. Finally, our turn came—Signature Nasi Goreng with Chicken Satay for C, Nasi Lemak for me. The meals came with chocolates, Ritter Sports Chocolate. I ate the chocolate first.

WE JUST CAME FROM AUSTRALIA!

We just came from 10-day Australia trip, spending almost two weeks around Sydney, Katoomba, Currumbin, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, and Brisbane. It was one heck of a honeymoon trip, something we totally didn’t see coming. Australia wasn’t really on our plan. It just so happened that we got approved for an Australian visa after consulting with One Vine Migration—a multiple entry visa good for a year at that too.

Pacsafe, the world leader in anti-theft bag technology recently launched their first ever flagship store, not only in the Philippines, but throughout the globe at Makati’s Glorietta 5 mall. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the event, and with it, we were given a Pacsafe bag to review too—the Metrosafe 150 GII body sling bag.

THE FIRST EVER PACSAFE STORE IN THE WORLD OPENS AT GLORIETTA 5

The first thing I look for, and I guess most people too, in a bag is its style. Does it look cool enough, is it too preppy, does it stand out? With the Metrosafe, it passed with flying colors. I also love the textured 100% nylon fabric and its earthy tones. I’m not too keen on bags that looks too festive.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and if you’re a travel bum like me who only gets to enter shopping malls once in a blue moon, you probably don’t have anything ready for your girl yet. V-Day is just a few days away and if you can’t muster the energy to go malling, online shopping just might be the thing for you.

I’m not sure how it happened but I always seem to get e-mails from online shops offering items at discounted prices. Their products are tempting enough, so I checked out their site to see if they have items related to traveling and sure enough, they have tons of it.

If you’re romantic partner is also a travel junkie, here’s five sweet gifts you can get for her (or him):

I once asked Ed of SoloflightEd why he got an expensive Headware than buying a much cheaper bandana to use for his travel. He explained that it was much better than your regular biker dude bandana and proceeded to demonstrate its uses. Still, considering it is ten times more expensive, I was left unconvinced.

A week ago, I got a chance to test this wonder bandana called Headware in Baguio City after being sent a couple of samples. The first one’s a limited edition Marvel-inspired Headware that’s a bit too colorful for my taste (so I gave it to A instead) and the other’s a much more conventional black floral design that I kept.

“I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, that I didn’t know who I was…I was far away from home haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I’d never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn’t know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn’t scared, I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost… I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future, and maybe that’s why it happened right there and then that strange red afternoon.”

Much has already been said about the modern masterpiece that is On the Road but I barely know anything about it before finally being given a copy as a birthday gift. I’ve been a book fan since forever and my usual choice of books usually revolve on horror, science fiction, fantasy and whatnots. I’ve never picked up a book about travelling even once, not knowing such kinds of books exists at all.

So there I was, giddy as a highschool kid, after finally having my hand on the rough covers of On the Road after more than a year of looking for it. I usually read in the bus on the way to and from work, and imagine my surprise when I opened the pages and found a never-ending flow of texts inside.

I have, for the longest time, wanted a real underwater camera (not some flimsy plastic where you put in your camera and hope to heavens that it does not leak and destroy thousands of pesos of camera equipment), but due to time and monetary constraints, I had never gotten around to buying one.

That is until my Southern Luzon Roadtrip came, I knew I just couldn’t go without an underwater camera this time. I had already regretted the fact that I didn’t have one during last year’s trip to Coron, this time I’d be armed and ready.