Birthday Wish

Found the place for dog lovers! It's been awhile since I decided not to have pets...and now I am so ready to have them again. I miss Mozart and Pumpkin. And while I enjoy the company of Dexter and Einstein, they are in Cebu and I rarely get to see them.

So I am starting to shop around and checking different dog breeds. I want to investigate and lear more. You know just to try new experience. Living with dogs is great yet it is never easy. Dogs need care and can be very expensive too! But then they are always worth it, and I know most of you guys agree. Right? ;)

I am hoping the IT Guy gets to to read it...or maybe some nice friends and will send me a puppy soon. I have been wanting to have one for awhile now, just that I couldn't seem to find the time to really look for one for myself. I am really hoping to have it soon...after all, my birthday is coming! Ahem. LOL

Right now I am just trying to educate myself more on how to be very organize and in making sure I am very much ready when the time comes...which I am really hoping to be soon!

Where Do I Go Next

I am sitting at my office and I am not in my very good mood...so I started googling around and was looking for whatever I can read online. I get to a site which offers practically different tips on different things. Choosing to stay on the topic of moving (since I have been asking myself why have I moved from Cebu anyway only to get pissed at people whose views and perspective I couldn't care about!) I found several moving tips. While there are tips which are generics and I have known almost all my life and some I thought were born out of common sense there also new things I read in this site. The movers at Billy section offers me also different options of moving companies in different locations. So this is a trend. More and more resources have become available online giving consumers a wide choices. This is consumer power I would say! LOL

So randomly I started asking myself where should I go to should I move now. I have been prioritizing LA all this time but for today I have a change of heart and had thought of Houston. I have been there several years ago but never had the chance to stay long enough to know the place, now I want to visit it again. So what if I move there soon?! Aha, well, I just have to check out different companies which offer Houston moving services.

But then if only it is as easy as click on the link to check what options I have should I go there. Sigh.

Long Term Investments

I am finally home after being at the center for 15 to 16 hours for days now. Today I believe is marks my shortest stay at the center, a sweet 11 hours. But no worries I love what I am doing, just that I have lots of things to do and I feel like I need more than 24 hours a day. 

Anyway, did I mention before how crazy I am with investments and how I am spending much on insurance? 

Aha! Yup, yup I spend about 20 to 30 percent of my earnings to insurance, just because! So you should not be surprise to know that I am always at Netquote. I know this is something not so typical where I'm from. At thirty I owned several policies already. LOL 

So I keep reading and reading about it and I keep asking people about it. Lately I came across with New York state business insurance and CA business insurance. It is quite interesting to compare how things are being done in different places. While the generics and principles are all the same there are still differences and I would say I believe they have to do entirely with economics of certain areas, culture and perception of the market.  

I am just so glad that on my end I have changed the perception of my family and friends. So I am proud to say that they have at least one policy now! Woot!

Moving Companies Comparison

One of the things which I learned when I moved to Bacolod other than finding the right place is getting to know several moving companies. While there are several options in the market we may not just look at directly the financial side of things. We also have to examine closely what are the different services and value added service each offers and most importantly feedback of fast clients. I'd say the latter matters most since nothing beats a testimonial of a client on how good a service is. 

Where I am we do not have so many choices, but while searching the net I am glad to know that this industry has slowly evolved and that there are avenues where one can get a very good comparison of different moving companies in different locations.

I am looking forward to that day when I get to see the same thing done for my place. I would love to search what options I have should I move to any place here in the Philippines. After all, after moving here in Bacolod I am now more open to exploring other areas in the country. Well actually I did not move here, I am just temporarily base here which in effect allows me to have 2 homes. This is something I never thought I would be able to afford before and now it has become a funny thought. The boss keeps mentioning about opening centers in other places and I will be covering all centers and that means having another place to stay once again. Hopefully by then I will have more information on moving companies wherever I will be going to.

So where to next? I am not really sure. I am hoping Cebu so that way I get to relax by traveling to two cities which I am already familiar with. Plus I don't have to add another place too soon because I have been wanting to getting another car.

Wish me luck!

Forethoughts Win

I couldn't believe that the week is over and that I made it. My visit to another center did not turn out well and considering the fact that I was not really optimistic about it. So needless to say it was way worst than I expected. There was no proper coordination between my client that the other center and I was left at front line of a war and the only rule I had to follow were -- (1) never to shoot and (2) to come out alive with my team victorious. I know it does not make sense but then in the corporate world, you know these things happen. Anyway I am proud to say that I was able to work my way somehow and that if there is anything I made clear it was the fact that I am bigger than the situation. And just when I thought everything was going into the right place, one of my staff got sick. Her platelets went down, as low as 70. She was diagnose with dengue and had to be confined in the hospital. Did I mention that our center is a start-up and I am still in the process of getting an HMO? So what now? 

Well I am so happy that before leaving Bacolod I was prompt enough to include business health insurance. I never really thought I'd be able to use them, it was just something I felt I was obligated to do and now I am just so thankful for having thought of it as we are able to avail of it. The plan we got is quite similar to what I found online, the business insurance in Utah.

That is one of the many reasons why I said I still come out bigger than the rest and the situation despite all that happened. Oh well I am always a believer of insurance and since I cannot claim to good at it, I'd rather not discuss details about it except that it is really worth getting at the end of the day. You can learn more about it at Insurance Information Institute.

I Own Too Many Domains

...and I am not using all of them!


Next to buying shoes, makeups and dresses, I buy domains. Yes, you read it right, I mean domains, and if I own a dotcom you can bet that most likely I also own the dotnet and the dotinfo. I know it sounds like crazy but as most of you know I am crazy with shoes and makeup and what have you...so why should it be different with domains?! Anyway! I found this interesting webhosting site...and well on the contrary to what most of you expect which I presume is to find webhosting plans and offers there, you will find there instead options on what to do with your domains...especially those which you are not currently using. Also you get to read there reasons on why people buy several domains...and good thing I found some of my reasons there! ;)

So if you want to read more about what are your webhosting options and whether to do it with Linux of Windows, with a subscription or without, you may want to check it out. I found so many useful information there and I still have my eyes on Linux WebHosting as I really want to try it.

And that is for my quick Tech Tuesday post. I will try to write more about Linux WebHosting next week, promise!

Web Hosting with Free Domain Name

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Nexx Online. All opinions are 100% mine.


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This is one good find for me...and something to add to my Tech Tuesday!

Wanna Bet?!

First of all, let me greet you all a Happy Easter!


My vacation to my home Cebu was fantastic. The long weekend was too short though. My week is pretty hectic and this will be my life until we open the first floor of the call center. The busyness of course shouldn't prevent me from getting a life, though lately, it's been my online life. Ha!


Speaking of online life, anyone of you fond of betting? And I mean sport betting. As most of you know, I play online games a lot and lately I got into this sport betting thingy! It's really a fun way to learn more about your sport and your sport icon. Of course to be at the top of this game is not that easy, yet it is not that difficult! Last night while trying to make myself sleep I checked several sport betting sites and got into one which offers a good list to choose from with corresponding reviews. Now I want to try each of the sites in the list and see how much fun I can get! Woot! Now I have found myself another fun stuff to do without going out. See, I always find my way of getting my life.

Learning Words

It's a beautiful Saturday morning here in Bacolod City. I've had a good rest and I'm up early and I feel so recharged!

Anyway, last night I was able to surf around the net and found this interesting vocabulary builder. This software is quite nice and easy to use and will be very helpful to people learning English and enhancing their vocabulary skills. I've had not tried it myself but with the way I saw its demo I think I'm going to like it. This software works with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. I'm so looking forward to its word ticker feature which allows you to display words automatically. It has also a spell word by meaning feature and allows you to recall some meaning of words.           

Once I get to try it I will let you know how is it. So far the reviews are all good.

Hobby Farming

While I am trying to calm the storm in my schedule, I am slowly making my list of things to do once I'm over my busyness. As most of you know, I am always forward looking. Ha!

If there is one thing that this place has that I can't find in Cebu, it's space. And I mean it literally. Here are vast of land...plain land for that matter. In fact as I have mentioned in one of my recent post, the house I got has a good space for garden. Well, as I stare at it every morning with my coffee I see that it can be more than that. I think it can accomodate the new hobby which I have been contemplating for months now - hobby farming.

I am a lover of veggies and that makes me miss Cebu. For whatever reason it's a bit hard to find fresh vegetables here and the way they are priced are just ridiculous. In Cebu we were able to grow some veggies in our garden and so I thought I might do it here. So for the past days I have been reading about farming.

I can't wait to have something like this in my garden!

Pool Party Coming!

It's almost summer here and IT Guy is trying to fix the nephew's cute swimming pool. Then we thought of doing a pool party for the nephew's birthday. Well his birthday is still about 6 months from now that hey, we need ample time to plan! Especially that we might need to do some changes at the lawn to accommodate the said activity.

IT Guy told me that we need to consider having above ground pools. They are way cheaper and we can take it down anytime. Also with the limited space that we have this might be the best for us. Add to that the young nephew's safety. If we just simply remove the ladder, then he can't go in there anymore! Nobody here is a serious swimmer so I guess we will get by with this type of pool for now. I think I can take care of the aesthetic part and can make it look natural. Yes, we are that crazy to consider getting one for the party. We're too tired of hosting a party in a country club or hotel. I want a homey and cozy pool party so we do barbecues and those other fun stuff. After all, guests are all close friends. And more than anything we want the nephew to enjoy and I'm sure he'll love to stay in the water with other children. 

So now we have a theme for the nephew's birthday and we will start collecting items that will be good for giveaways. IT Guy said he will take care of the pool. Ha! So sweet...so that is off my expense. The brother and SIL will once again complain that we might be spoiling the child, but who cares, flower blooms in abundant water!

And for you guys, you may want to have your own pool party too!

Business of Helping the Elderly

I'm in a manic mode right now. I still have to start packing. And I have to pack a lot because I will be moving to a new city for the new job. I am quite excited just that so many things to do and as days passed, I feel like I have so little time left. Mom still has to visit the Grandma at another province. I really wanted to go as it might be 3 to 4 months before I could go and see her but then looks like it is not just possible. 

Grandma always has me worried at some point. I am very close to her and I cannot just be at peace with the thought that she is far from us and she live alone. Can you imagine an elderly living alone? While my Moms 2 of my Mom's siblings live nearby, it is just sad that we couldn't rely on them to take care of her. Good thing my Grandma is quite strong despite her senior years. 

So what Mom do to make things work is she or we visit Grandma 2-3 times a month to make sure her needs are covered. Mom for the most part go there to clean the house. Grandma cleans it too but Mom do the general cleaning for her. I think this is one area where the elderly has some challenge doing, cleaning their home. I am thinking since most of the elderly here either live alone or live with their children, they might be needing assistance in cleaning their home. I don't think our case is an exception. I was kidding Mom that we might as well get a cleaning franchise. That way we have some of the chores for Grandma covered and at the same time we have a business and we could specialize on helping the elderly, after all there is that latent demand and they are a captive market. Right?

Hmmm, let me go and think about this seriously now!

Mariposa's Going Bananas

I've been most of my time at home baking banana cakes the past days. So if you visit you will see bananas all over the kitchen!

So for Thursday 13, let me share with you some facts about bananas -

1. It is believed by many experts that bananas were the first fruit cultivated by humans.
2. The banana "tree" is not really a tree, but a giant herb. The banana is the fruit of this herb.
3. The strings that go up and down the length of bananas are called Phloem Bundles. They help distribute nutrients to every part of the growing bananas.
4. The cluster of bananas sold in supermarkets is a "hand" of bananas, while the individual bananas on the hand are called fingers.
5. The yellow bananas that are most often sold in supermarkets are sometimes called "dessert bananas" because they are soft and sweet. And this is the type I made into banana cakes such as this --

6. Plantains are a type of banana that are not as sweet and are usually cooked. While not as commonly eaten in North America, plantains are a dietary staple in many tropical regions like here in the Philippines!
7. Worldwide, bananas are the fourth largest fruit crop.
8. The banana peel is edible, though perhaps not very palatable unless cooked. Acckkk! LOL
9. The banana split was invented in 1904 by 23-year-old David Evans Strickler, an employee at the Tassel Pharmacy soda fountain in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
10. The song "Yes, We Have No Bananas" was released in 1923 and became a huge hit. It refers to the banana shortage at the time
11. In 2001, Britain recorded 300 incidents of injuries related to bananas. The majority of these involved people slipping on banana peels. Please be careful of those peels!
12. Alexander the Great first came across bananas in India in 327 B.C.
13. The pejorative term "banana republic" was coined by American writer O. Henry. He used it in reference to Honduras, but the term became widely used in reference to any Latin American, Caribbean, or African country that was politically unstable, relied heavily on basic agriculture, and was not technologically advanced.

So there you go...happy Thursday to all!

Crowd Control Measures

Have you ever organized an event which requires you to do some crowd control? And I mean not just yelling and asking people to stay calm and orderly. =)

Well I was into even organizing many years ago and I'd say one cannot just underestimate the need to facilitate traffic, impose security and do crowd control. I was very young then and had to seek help from experts in my explaining to me measures for crowd control.

 

Crowd control requires some planning, expertise and some products which will help in assisting the crowd. Depending on the type of crowd, crowd control may vary from a simple putting up of barricades to setting up stanchions. On top of that, one may need additional manpower to make sure everything is being followed accordingly. 

Barricades can be of different forms. For instance, the government here imposes no jay walking and they use those orange traffic cones to make sure nobody crosses the street nor no cars making illegal U-turns. There are also fence barricades which I have used when I had outdoor concerts. But the best one I've tried so far are stanchions as these let me use retractable belts and or ropes. In almost all of my formal events, especially the indoor, I have used this one. I am happy with the fact that it lets me choose the color of the ropes and do some prints on it. That allowed me to customized it according to the theme of my events. I have used it in bridal fairs, product launch and other political events with some VIP guests.

So if you are to organize your own event, grand or personal, you may want to consider this aspect more than anything. Nothing ruins a nicely organized event than a chaotic crowd.

What Is The Beyond Life

How do you see death? Do you believe in afterlife? Have you ever given it a thought?

I am a Christian and I believe in everlasting life with my Creator. I guess it depends on how we look at life and what we see beyond it. Reincarnation and immortality need not be taken literally. And though we may have differing views about it, we can all agree that each of us can leave a trail here by leaving a good life. After all, our lives when we passed away will be placed in the memory of the living. So if we leave good karma behind us, people left behind will according those sets of karma. But then what is karma? For me karma is just like this so called debt of gratitude common among us Filipinos. It is when we repay good with something good. 

I am not afraid of death. It took me so long to get to this stand and the journey wasn't the nicest at all, but it's all worth it! I encourage everyone to take a look and understand death. It is only then we can embrace it and move on, either through after life or by leaving good memories to our loved ones.

Brought to you by: REIN

Website Optimization Needs

Few days ago I was talking about me getting an artist to work on the design of my other website. It's about done now and so far I am liking it. That site is for my consulting endeavors and more than getting a good design, I want its web presence optimize as well. I want the website design to address the site's search engine optimization needs. For this particular site, I am just the one taking care of that since this is more of a hobby. But for that other one I think I will opt to get an expert in  website optimization. 

What about you? Who is taking care of your site's SEO?

Planning Your Valentine's Day

It's now the end of the month and February is fast approaching...in a few days it will be Valentine's Day! As most of you know I am the hopeless romantic type dates like Valentine's Day though not all that matters to me, it certainly does matter to me. 

I remember my Pre-Valentine Escapade with the IT Guy two years ago. We went to Hong Kong, stayed in a very nice hotel, went around a bit to shop and more than anything we were able to spend time with each other. It was just so thoughtful of him to surprise me with a trip like that. It was so memorable! 

Of course with the length of time I have been with the IT Guy, truly we've had so many Valentine's Day spent together already, I would say all were fun and memorable and I always look forward to our next Valentine's together, like any lovers I guess. 

The thing though is well, not all ha enough cash to pull up a very good date. And no matter how simple we want to celebrate it, the fact that the whole world celebrates it tells us that nothing is just cheap on a Valentine's Day. So some people would opt to get some cash advance to make sure they have this special event covered.

Be a Green Police!

Be part of the world's largest greenfield music and performing arts festival, be a be a Green Police! Yes, I am talking about the Glastonbury festival, a fun and creative way of promoting environmental concerns by promoting simple rules are follows --

* We stop people urinating in the water and hedgerows.
* We make sure people dispose of their fag butts correctly.
* We encourage litter picking, recycling and better waste management.

I have always been a lover of nature and I really admire efforts like this. Nothing grand, nothing fancy but to the point. We all can help save mother nature and be a green-keeper by keeping the fun, creativity and sexiness, which is just what Glastonbury Festival is all about. Just look at how fun it is!

While it is certainly fun and artsy, the festival retains its seriousness and intent in promoting their main objectives. All these rules will be explain to festival goers face to face and should you want to be part of it, you have to make up your mind and heart to it.

So what are you waiting for, be part of this grand festival, send in your Green Police application now!

Hormones Are Girl's Best Friend!

Have you been under the weather? Having a bad day? Do you go ahead and blame it on the hormones? Most of us would probably blame everything on our hormones, it does not have to be! While it is true that hormones play a vital role in our lives we need be driven by it. We can be independent from it but simply understanding what are these hormones all about.

From infancy, puberty, pregnancy up to menopausal stage our hormones cycles and thus affect our body. It may not bee too apparent at childhood but no doubt even prior to puberty there is already some hormonal change going in our body and it cycles up and down as we reach puberty. In my teens I was lucky enough to have my Mom to guide me. She was very honest and candid to me in explaining the changes in my body. She then introduced me to my Ob-Gyn which I am always thankful for. At an early age I was able to reach a certain level of understanding about women's health. So it was not a shock to me to have some specific cravings days before my period for example. I am also able to watch how my weight cycles up and down. I guess women who are trying to manage their weight regardless which stage they are need to have a thorough understanding of the female hormones, specifically their own. That way they would know best how to handle themselves and would no longer blame hormones for bad hair day, skin rashes and weight gains. There are some online resources which can help women in managing their diet too such seattle hcg.

Remember hormones are not our enemy, we just have to befriend them and one way of doing that is understanding them! ;)

Claiming Rights

IT Guy has been quite busy this week. The wife of this supervisor just passed away and a very good friend of his is on critical condition --both cases were caused by brain injuries. Very sad...quite awful.

I couldn't give out much details about the supervisor's wife who just passed away but I can tell what happened to his friend. When they were still in their high school IT Guy recalled his friend being pushed some bullies in their school. After that his friend has been absent from the class for days. He was reported to have been vomiting. There were some episodes of headaches after that which eventually they tossed aside. Few years after he was diagnosed with some brain complications and the main cause of which is that brain injury he incurred several years ago. This is not an isolated case at all. This happens to a lot of people who got into accident without a thorough check-up on the extent of the injuries they have incurred. Most of the times it is already too late for the victims to react and the ones who caused them damages had been freed. This is also one of the many reasons why I don't like the IT Guy in a motor bike. I am just too scared of accidents. It is an advantage to some states that has brain injury lawyer available to guide victims in making sure they are well taken cared of. In most cases here, the moment the victim is able to walk a release from further liability is done. Very sad, and quite unfair. IT Guy's friend now is shouldering all medical expenses and it is the same with other accident victims here.