My 2009 Sign Off Post

I know, this is an early bid for the year 2009 but since I will be going off to province to spend the holiday and will have a limited access to internet, I would like to sign off my blog with my 2009's last post.

This will just be a short one as I have lots of urgent matters to attend to. 2009 has has been a year of personal struggles and financial difficulties and I am so thankful that I've been through all that. I just realized that really at the end of the day, it's not your losses or troubles that you are going to count but the blessings that you'd received. And the best things that happened in your life are the ones that you will truly remember. I thank God for this perception for I will continue facing another year of yet another plight but now I know that the past one year of struggles had made me stronger to face the challenges ahead.

I hope that this coming new year brings renewed hope to everyone.

Happy holidays!

Now, what is your 2009 Sign Off Post? I am tagging RicAdeMus, jacky, yolanda, jenie, manju, romes and ems and every readers and followers of this blog to also blog and share their thoughts.

Come on, let us all end 2009 with a thankful heart.

A message to everyone

Yes, this short message is for you :)

A quick note

This isn't the udpates I am talking about in my What's New section. As I have mentioned I had made a major decision in my career plan which leaves me piles of things to do and blogging about details would take a chunk of my time which I need to spend on some more important things. Not to mention, I also need to re-organize my thoughts because I really don't know where to begin. My hands are pre-occupied. My mind is already cluttered and I don't want to make a mess out of my already cluttered thoughts. Focus, I need focus. And the thoughts of the approaching holiday never loosened this wierdness I'm feeling.


Anyway, I'm on my way of organizing pictures in my photobucket when I digged these photos. I just would like to share it. It reminds me of the fun we've shared back days.

Note: Image is clickable.

How to avoid this tricky 'Office Dumb Moment'

Imagine this.

You are typing very furiously while giving an exasperated gasp seeing the time displayed on the task bar of your monitor indicates you are already few minutes behind the deadline set for your deliverables. Worst is your fingers aren’t on their best functioning moments as if you are experiencing a trigger finger disorder (is a common disorder of later adulthood characterized by catching, snapping or locking of the involved finger flexor tendon, associated with dysfunction and pain) causing you to type incorrect words (such as 'she' as 'hse') or missing up one word (such as the 'you' from 'thank you for considering...'). It is a good thing your eyes are used to scanning document contents that make you an expert to notice some not very obvious typo. You're in the middle of your dilemma when you see a follow up email from your boss sliding in your taskbar. You're hearing the buzzer sound and in your mind you're seeing the impatient look of your boss - this sends a chill down your spine disturbing your focus and causing you to be more miserable. You let out another heave as if by just doing that you could lessen the panic you are feeling. You mumble, no, more like an insane singing "I'm almost there, I'm almost there" combined with "you can do it, you can do it" monologue to boost yourself. You're typing now the last line of your email, finally signing it off with your e-signature and then you hit the Send button. Email sent! You are now thanking heavens for this.

It’s your pattern to always double-check if the email was successfully sent to the intended recipient. You go to the Sent Items and click the email… then you’d discover the attachment is missing!!!

Of the all the things to forgot, why the very important document! You’re competency and efficiency depends on it! You’re boss is on it fast with a message that reads “no attachment????” Ugh! You could have scream if it were not for the thought that you would be disturbing the peace and order of the office. You are silently scolding yourself while immediately composing a reply for apology and this time, ensuring you have the correct file attached.

This moment always comes in as #1 in my top office dumb moments list.

Actually, I had few tips in mind to dodge off this ‘no attachment’ office syndrome when sending an email, but I failed to remind myself of these in that awkward moment a while ago.

Tips on how not to forget your email attachment:

1. Add the attachment first
2. Check if the attachment is correct
3. Compose your message
4. Add in the recipients
5. Proof-read
6. Send

Sending an email is still very tricky sometimes. If you're in a hurry, you tend to forgot those reminders above. So I did try searching if the outlook offers an automatic 'no attachment' reminders. I was not dispointed because there is actually one outlook plug-in that will save you from future embarrassing mistakes. ReplyButler will help you deliver a better impression, you will never ever do the same mistakes of mistyping a name and forgetting an attachment.

I hope this helps you guys.

Tom and Molly's Act of Lovemaking

He's taking his advances but she is not quiet ready. She run, he move swiftly in pursuit. Over the night, they are in a seemingly endless quest. He murmur something that only the two of them understand. She responds with a gracious body movement. He, reacting but choose to wait for her readiness and then the inevitable happens.

before your mind wanders off to something else. I'm talking about the act of lovemaking in cats, yes - Tom and Molly and the reason behind their wild noises when they engage themselves to the world of breeding.

For several years, our boarding house garage had served as a dwelling house for the this family of 'pusakal' (pusa sa kalye or homeless cat). Despite the sternness of the sorrounding, these cats had come to love the place. We usually find them lying underneath the cars, besides the windows, up in the garage posts, or in any corners. Sometimes we tripped over them on our way out especially if the lights were off, expect that we will receive a disgruntled sound or a scratch (which rarely happens) and lucky for us if the cat will just scamper away. The three of them - we called according to their age, mother (obviously, their mom), ming-garot (a male) and sister (the younger one, female). If we have spare foods, we let them inside the house to feed and eventually prompt them to catch some mouse. Aside from the occasional tripping, there is no problem having them as err... household members? lol

It was the usual friday night in our 'bahay ni ate' (this is how we called our humble abode - boarding house and when I say usual it means we are still up and busy catching up with each other or watching a movie 'til past midnight knowing it would be a glorious rest days the following two days). My relaxed mood was disturbed when we heard the loud and amorous noise coming from the garage. The 'barako' or the male cat (Tom, generally a name for a he-cat) was producing this very loud voice so frightening, which is responded in shriek by the female cat (Molly is what you will call a not pregnant female cat). I'm quiet familiar with the sound though because I have heard it before back in the province but it still never fails to make my arm hairs stood to its end. Tom and Molly continued their loud talks for quiet a time despite our rebuking. Out of curiousity, me and one of my boardmates went outside and took a peek underneath the car. There we saw, not the act but their prelude. The female cat, our very own sister and her male guest, were facing each other. The sound is non-stop despite having us as their spectator. We decided to throw them some water to stop the noise because it's really disturbing and we were glad that they did.

I wonder what reasons behind their sounds when they engage on the act and this curiosity drives me to search. Below are what I have read:

1. Caterwauling refers to the male's loud voice which serves with two purposes: announce his availability and warns other males of his intention and territory
2. Tom's interest to Molly increases when he is summoned by her own calls of love or smell her receptivity from urine or secretions from the vulva.
3. Flehmen refers to the expression (wrinkling up his nose and appears to be grinning) on the male's face as he smells the female heat.
4. If the female is not yet receptive, she may engage in a flirting chase, refusing to let him mount - thus the reason for the screeches and scratching sounds I've heard in our roof back in province. All this time I thought the female cat is being raped haha...
5. Once the he-cat is done, the she-cat pulls away, strikes out at him with a talon-exposed paws and screams. This is due to the pain she received from the spines on the male's withdrawing penis. (To view the complete source, click here)

Random Monday Part 2

Happy Monday everyone! Time passes by so swiftly, it's working week again. Not that I am expecting load of office works this week, I only prefer staying home and lying down in bed longer than the usual. I strongly feel that the 2-day off work is really not enough for me to recuperate from all the fatigues and sleep deprivation I've been through these previous busy weeks.

Recapping for the weekend's happening and all, my hands were tightly tied for my Saturday and Sunday's commitment. For the second time last Saturday I've been a willing helper of Ems for her My Chocolate Heaven (Manila branch) event - a catering of chocolate fountain station for an elegant wedding reception at Manila Polo Club. We arrived at 3pm, the exact time for the chocolate fountain setup. I've been sooo beyond stress because we pushed, dragged and carried everything from building's basement all the way through the second floor. 3pm was supposedly the start of the setup - it's only the two of us, we've got less strength than man to spare so we literally ran basement to 2nd floor and back again twice or thrice and had consumed the 30-minute setup time to transport everything to the setup area. Lucky for us because the elevator which was busted earlier was already functioning when we arrived so we did not have to go by stairs. At the reception area, our idea or what Ems and her client talked about was to setup choco-fountain for two tables – for the cocktail area and dinner area. So we were quiet surprised the reception coordinator told us to setup another one table for the soup area. We were not on the right time to argue so we just hurriedly started the setup as we were told. We started in the cocktail area. We were half way through in the cocktail setup when some of the guest arrived and started to pick some goodies. The chocolate fountain was the primary attraction for the early guests so they basically swarmed the area. We on the other hand were delayed in setting up the station for the soup area because Ems from time to time checked the cocktail area and refilled some of the goodies. Three hundred guests arrived and more than half of them enjoyably took a dip. Just for the cocktail area, we’d already emptied half of the dippers which leave us not much to setup for the dining area. It was more than 5 hours of checking and running to and fro and watching the gala on the fly. To sum it all up, it was a very tiresome event. But sadly, I did not find the gratification at the end of the event. Reasons: we were not satisfied with the setup; the bulk of work is just too much for allotted setup time. In addition, we divided the package that was selected into three that had left the table setup so plainly bare. So much for the recap and here's to my Random Monday posting. Below were some pictures I've took - streets and nooks of Manila Polo Club (bare with me, the pictures are a bit blurry. I used the night mode in my phone when I took these photos).

The streets and lights at Manila Polo Club

That's me and Ems while

waiting for the cab

Eclipse

This is a long over due post, I should have posted it 6 days ago but because I was in the province for that long weekend, I don't have the access to the internet. For the time being, the internet connection in our place is limited to the new settlers. As you may know, we've just moved in our new house last June 2009. Hopefully by January of next year, we can have the internet connection.

Anyway, have you already witnessed or experienced an astronomical phenomenon called the solar eclipse? I did at the young age of 8 back when we were still living in Leyte. Yes I know the latest solar eclipse just happened recently (July 22, 2009). But I was not aware there was an eclipse happening that time. I remember the first time I had witnessed the solar eclipse. We were at our school. The eclipse was expected at noon, when the sun is at its very highest. I've heard myths that while the earth is partially covered in darkness, lots of evil spirits are roaming around, rejoicing. I've heard elders reminding young ones not to look at the sun directly while the eclipse is happening if we don't want to our sight. To protect our eyes, we were advised to use sunglasses or an x-ray film. Our teacher then, Sir Gaddi (*may his soul rest in peace*), put a large basin half-filled with clean water in the middle of the school's playground. The water mirrored the heavenly phenomenal that produces the excited yells of every innocent students. He shouted to every student who dare move the basin or stir the water or unintentionally covered everyone's view because it spoiled the moment of witnessing the rare 'moon covering the sun' event. It is somewhat fantastic to watch. When the full solar covering happened, the light coming from the sun rays had dimmed. It was mid-day but it feels like a very late afternoon. Later did I know that some part of the Philippines (like in Pampanga) had experienced a total darkness.

Eclipse is a natural phenomenon which produces darkness in areas where the sun rays are covered by the moon's umbra. It lasts in a matter of minutes and seconds. It's not permanent and I could not help but compare it to what we are experiencing in our lives. We have our own several eclipses - those are the episodes in our life when feel lost and dispirited because of overwhelming difficulties, issues and uncontrollable circumstances that confront us in our day to day lives. But just like the eclipse, it is not lasting. When there is darkness, there is light. For every problem, there is a solution. It's only a matter of perspective: either you choose to be responsible to do something with the problem or you just ignore it and be confronted with a much bigger problem later.

Problem is a part of the natural cycle in our life. Do not expect that the problem you resolved today is the last problem you will be facing in the your entire life. What you can do? Two things: Prepare and Pray.

Prepare

1. yourself to be strong

2. for things that can eventually help you (like savings, most of the life problems can be resolved financially)

3. spiritually and

PRAY for God's guidance and help to strengthen you in your course.

For a little perspective, I would like to leave you this inspirational quote from Mary Kay Ash:

For every failure, there's an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Random Monday

It's December 1! 23 days to go and it's Chrismas soon! I am still on a long weekend mood. It's Tuesday and I feel like extending the holiday and this conscious feeling is probably the culprit for my being late to office today. Not good considering I'm nearing memo-bingo from our HR officer. Why am I getting so lazy coming to office these days? Uh-oh, this question would probably cause a meaningful smiles from my colleagues. I am hoping my supervisor will not have to cross over this site, that would mean I would go bingo again. Office peeps beware, this is not a good example!

It's been 4 days that I have not gone blogging and today, I just wanna make it up thus the reason why I came with this post random monday - talks about anything I've done within the weekend. I guess, I will have random monday as a regular post everytime we have a long weekend.

Last week, I decided to go for a 'frugal' shopping trip to Divisoria (frugal + shopping = imposible, such a contradicting word lol). Knowing the divisoria corners, streets and malls will be filled with buyers, I decided to go on leave Friday and hit the market.

Saturday and Sunday were another busy days. As you may have known, I have announced the availability of My Chocolate Heaven catering services in Pampanga. Printing and giving away of fliers and calling cards, catching up with friends and of course introducing them my business had kept my hands occupied.

November 30 was another off-work (saya!), this is to commemorate the birthday of our Philippine National Hero - Andres Bonifacio, who fought against Spaniards thus owing him the freedom we Filipinos are basking these days.

I just suddenly remember the lady I've met yesterday at the LRT station in Doroteo Jose. She was carrying large bags - obviously came from buying holiday give aways. She look so depressed. The station security guard prompted her to get into the proper lane. She was replying something and the next thing I heard she'd lost 6,000 pesos while she was busy doing her shopping at Divisoria! I could not help but felt pity for the lady. That's why whenever I went to Divisoria, I don't just hang my bag loosely on my shoulder, I make it sure that I am hugging my bag in front. Also, I don't bring extra cash. I don't put cash on my side pockets, you would not know when a thief would pick your pocket since people there constantly came rushing and brushing on your side often times on your behind. Sling bag is a big no to me, out of carelessness and excitement, you would just leave your bag hanging to your side - an attraction to the hovering thief.

I bought two white shirts with some prints yesterday for 100 bucks each. I feel so sappy and happy that I also bought two shirts for my boyfriend. I will surely take a photo of the shirts and will post it on my next random monday entry.

That's all for my random thoughts. I am not really into blogging of my daily personal activities but to give my blog a touch of my daily activities - I decided to make random monday as a regular monday posts.

Hope everyone had a great long weekend... err, I forgot long weekend did not apply to everyone.

Think and think well

How do you look at life?

Do you see a solution in every challenge or a problem in every circumstance?

Are you hopeful? Do you always see the glass half-full? Or are you seeing it half-empty?

Are you sad because there are thorns in the roses or are you rejoicing because roses have thorns?

The questions above may not have a direct relation to my post below but whatever answers, yours and mine, to these questions are just to prove people have different perspective in life.

Each have their own way of seeing every circumstances, of percieving every single things, of regarding situations and topics. The appearance of things to one person is not the same appearance as viewed by another. All of these affects our judgment.

It is not evitable having few heated arguments arising from every topic - with sense or senseless. People are prone to be subjective in judgment.

Subjective judgment. Rearranging prejudices based on the individual's emotional view and preconceived ideas.

I don't usually give my two-cents and I don't usually contest my side of the argument but when I do, it's done impulsively. People tend to blurt and I'm one of those, the worst sometimes, it is in a wrong tone. And when I do, I could just mumble to myself, "Oh girl I wish you'd just shut up!"

But whatever I think is my standing. I could not force someone to believe in what I believe just as someone could not force me to do the same. However, I always have a space in my mind for the consideration, weighing the pros and cons of someone's argument.

This is my rule of thumb: Think before you say it. But when you do say it and it's too late to hold back the words, think again before you get yourself fuming over the retaliations you've received.

This applies to me and I'm getting myself working on it. And I think this applies to everyone too.

A thank you note

I still have two days left before I should closed my poll 'Would you re-visit my blog?'. Today, I decided to change my layout and I somehow messed up my HTML codes. My widget Poll1 is displaying nothing; questions and the results are all gone! I could not just re-started the poll because it will spoil my purpose. So I don't have any choice but end it today.

Out of 12 votes, I got 9 Yes votes. Not bad! 1 says he/she is not going to visit my blog again. 1 saying what is it for him/her. The other one says maybe. Guess, I could add up that maybe vote to Yes vote haha...

Out of 12 votes only two had left their comments. Sad but anyways, thanks to both of you Yolanda and Independent Queen for sparing time to leave me a message.

I'm a newbie in blogging and somehow struggling to find a spot in the blogging world. My deepest appreciation for all those who voted.

Here are the emblems, feel free to grab it if you like.

Proud am a Blogger

I'm tagging Yolanda and Independent Queen as a friendly blogger.

Hey, you can also tagged fellow bloggers. Just follow the guidelines:

1. Copy the badge and put it on your blog

2. Link back who pass you this tag

3. Spread this tag to bloggers who you think you are friend with.

Until next time, grosses bises

Remembering Chloe :(

After an hour of blog walking, I got bored. But I still have couple of hours ahead before I could pack my things and leave the office. Office bummers out there, you probably know the struggles of pretending you're facing your monitor and doing something important and the feeling of accomplishing nothing at the end of the day, right? I feel ashamed to myself knowing my one month salary is intact despite of long hours doing non-work related. Well, what else could I do? We don't have projects in line, we have no tasks to work on, and so on...

Enough for the office rantings. So just to pass up time, I browsed my old pictures saved in my local computer. Seeing my old self flooded me with memories. I suddenly wished to have my long hair back. As you may know, the length of my hair right now is the shortest I've ever got in my entire life and I'm promising myself with cross fingers pointed at my heart never to have a short hair cut again. Anyway, back to my picture-browsing. I open this folder named "Cat" without a realizing that I am actually opening it.

These are some of the contents:

It's Chloe! My pet in a span of one week. Yes, she's dead and blame it on my bf's dog. She's just a baby. My boyfriend's neighbor found her in the street. My boyfriend remembering me that I love to have a cat volunteered to adopt this cute kitten. She's so cute and I like her the instant I saw her. For a local cat, her fur is different from the usual orange or brown or white. It was like a mixed of white-orange-gray, haven't seen a fur like her.

I remember this one was taken the night we first met. I just finished feeding her and as my bf said, once she's full, she'll just return to her sleeping area, guess it's here comfort zone. Unlike other kittens, all you could hear are their meows. But this one is different, very independent. She's silent and will only make a sound once she's hungry. Anyway, I was looking for her an hour after I had her fed. I looked every where, from every rooms, to bathrooms, corners, under the tables, cabinets. I was calling like mengg... memengg... (that's how me and my sisters call cat's attention, even when we were still kids). It was after 10 minutes when I found her hiding inside this boots. It made me laugh that time. She is just so cute that I couldn't help but grab my phone and take a shot. She was also like grabbing my phone and her eyes widening in horror when the flashes came.

After a week, my bf called with a bad news. Chloe is dead. It was like when his dad arrived home that day, their two dogs were like bouncing and barking and playing around out of excitement. So chloe, feeling so feel at home that time, went out of her hiding and met the master of the house. Tarzan, the male dog, maybe out of excitement grabbed the kitten by the neck, playfully rocked chloe sideways causing her to be throwned over to the floor with a full force. Ugh! A painful death:(

Today those pictures painfully reminded me of chloe.

3 days left to cast your votes

3 days to cast your vote on my poll: would you re-visit my blog?

Emblems are waiting. I only got two who leave their comments. So these two are the lucky ones yet: independent queen, yolanda

Click here for the details.

Petition to Stop Killing Dolphins

I am sure most of you already heard the cruel, gruesome mass killing of dolphins. And I am sure that most of you have seen the pictures below depicting the unmerciful killing of innocent dolphins and whales that are nearing extinction. The question is, have you already done something to stop this inhuman practice?

You could do something now. Click the link below to sign the petition.

Petition to stop killing dolphins and whales

I just got this from an email by a friend. This is already going on for a long time - for Denmark, it was a practice since 1584. I know this is kind of late but it is never too late for the world to hear our plea of stopping this non-sense killing.

Whatever is their reason behind this killing might be reasonable on some level, but it is not good enough as an excuse to continue this as a custom, regarding it and accepting it as a mere convention of what - celebrating adulthood?!

Okay, the dolphins and whales were created to serve specific purpose, we may view them as our source of food and other human needs. But my goodness, we're all living now in a civilization far from the primitive world. We don't need to be primitive in our ways of dealing with this. At least, kill them with mercy! Use our technology to kill them with instantaneous death - not in beach shore, not infront of the world's view, not by using spears and hook, stabbing and slicing them to death, that is so inhuman! And to think that the appalling cries of this mammal are reaching their kinds, no wonder one day, the wild be wilder and the tamed untamed.

The pictures you are seeing above are actually from Denmark. But this is also happening in Japan.

Twilight and New Moon: A healthy movie?

Speaking of heroes in my previous post, my writing momentum was suddenly diverted to the current hullabaloo that started just this Friday. November 20 marks the premiere of New Moon, the second sequel to the Twilight movie released last year, which in the same manner as the first sequel, had caused a stirring in the crowds consisted of teens and tweens and the young at heart.

I remembered having said that I am not to drool over this movie simply because I am not a fan of dark romance. But the curiosity forced me to read the book and ironic is I have survived reading the four books despite having known the story is centered to Bella's pathetic side. I must confessed, I was entertained. No, I guess entertained is an understatement. Captivated is the right choice of word. I guess it was the fantasy that lures me, the swooning and delight to the two beautiful teenage guys staged as perfect by the author. I'm ashamed to admit but I think I'm not yet over with this ridiculous teenage emotion that I so believe I once had.

As I've said, I'm a fan too but not to the nth level of bringing myself sandwiched in between people, rushing so I could get the best seat to view, squealing and still mooning around after having to watch the movie three times.

But let me strip the beautiful characters the movie creates and let me give it a fair judgment.

What does this movie entails? How healthy is it for our young minds to view this movie?

For the good life I had past me, I've watched a fairly bunch of good and bad movies. And believe me, when I was younger, there's always this tendency to internalize the things I've watched. Twilight and New Moon and its sequel are all about fantasy of forbidden love, of a very romantic relationship, and some with violence. It is so enticing for a young mind these days especially those in a relationship that they would try applying it to their personal life which is why it makes this movie unhealthy to the young viewers. Always, a guidance of a parents is required.

I have read somewhere in the net and I would like to share it with every adults out there, every parents reading this post and every young minds the true message that is well-hidden in every heart-warming and heartbreaking scenes of Twilight and New Moon, which are being explained here.

Whenever we are watching movies, let us not just focus on its superficial. Let us draw our attention to the underlying meaning of what we're watching because psychologically we are affected. What we watched influences our behavior, it may not be obvious to yourself but its evidence is manifested on how our youths are reacting these modern days.

Anyway, I'm planning to watch New Moon only after its sensation die down. I don't want to squeeze myself to a movie house packed of people. Again, curiousity drives me about this New Moon. Let's see if this sequel would thrill me as the first sequel did.

Hero

Just almost two weeks ago, I posted here the educational endeavor of our government and most of our non-profit organizations in pursuit of stabilizing the educational system, widespreading it across the country with the objective of reaching out-of-school youths. I mentioned requesting votes for Efren Peñaflorida and his gang's 'pushcart classroom.'

Early today, when I opened my yahoo mail, this headline greeted me.

RP’s Efren Peñaflorida is 2009 CNN Hero of the Year

Our hero won!

He will receive a $100,000; the prize money 'Kuya F', as fondly called, pledge to the children his group is helping.

"Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man, woman of different colors, shapes and sizes. We are one great tapestry. Each person has a hidden hero within, you just have to look inside you and search it in your heart, and be the hero to the next one in need. So to each and every person inside in this theater and for those who are watching at home, the hero in you is waiting to be unleashed. Serve, serve well, serve others above yourself and be happy to serve. As I always tell to my co-volunteers ... you are the change that you dream as I am the change that I dream and collectively we are the change that this world needs to be." - quoted from Efren Peñaflorida acceptance speech for the CNN Hero of the Year at Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

A hero lives in you, a hero lives in me, a hero lives in everyone of us. The only thing that strangles that hero is the selfishness that we possess. Our concern for our own welfare and disregarding others. Our drive to fulfill our earthly ambitions not minding who we are trampling on. We have our own good ways to reach and help each other. If only each one of us are practicing it, then the world is not enduring the worst it is suffering now.

Having known a person that embodies the spirit of self-giving gives a stirring feeling in our heart that advocates us to do good will. As what Kuya F mentioned on his speech, we could be a hero by just extending help to the next one in need.

This stormy and tragic year of 2009, Filipino embodied a great spirit of 'pagkaka-isa', the volunteerism. Lots of hero emerges. I just hope that this hero continue the spirit of helping each other not only in times of adversity like what we had during the tragic of Ondoy.

Lately Manny Pacquia won his fight. Another Filipino excels in the world of sports. Another Filipino raises the Philippine flag. Another Filipino hero.

Who's the next hero to emerge? Everyone (I hope).

I hope everyone listens to the good will of a hero inside him this coming 2010 Presidential election. Let us wisely cast our precious vote to the leader worthy of our trust. Let us choose the qualified one to represent and run our country. Let’s vote for the right kind of change in 2010!

Some great reads

Reading has always been my interest. It's my form of diversion I remember I developed the first time I learned how to read abc's.

At a younger age, my reads consisted of fairy tale books, nursery rhymes, shool books for basic english learning.

When I reached my adolescence, my reads were reader's digest, gospel books and pocketbooks (tagalog or english).

I am always captivated by narrative of early english era where knights, horses, swords and heroine reigns. Also, stories of historical romance and the early life struggles never fails to imbue my soft side.

A typical hopeless romantic gal, yes I am!

Just today, I have finished reading the last chapter of the online story I was following for over a year. It was a story of a mountain man in the early stage of growth and development of the American frontier.

For a glimpse, here is the introduction of the story written by Judith Bronte.

In the year "Mountain Wild" begins, the American frontier was still in its infancy. The exploits of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett were fresh in the hearts and minds of Americans, for their legends were still relatively new. These famous frontiersmen led the way for a nation expanding ever westward, and those who followed in their footsteps were eager to prove themselves equal to the challenge.

A certain breed of men picked up where America's early frontiersmen left off. They were the mountain men. Rocky Mountain trappers hunted the streams in search of beaver, and explored lands that had never before seen white men.

From about 1824 to 1840, mountain men hired by fur companies formed brigades that trekked deep into the wilderness in pursuit of pelts. The furs they caught were later shipped back to "polite society" and turned into hats and all manner of goods.

The few who did not work for fur companies were called free trappers. These mountain men answered to none but themselves, and like their company counterparts, often became as wild and untamed as the Rocky Mountain wilderness in which they lived and died.

This story begins with a free trapper.

Click here if you like to continue reading.

This is a free read. I've been reading Judith Bronte's story online for good years of four. The first time I came accross her site I instantly added it to my favorites. Some of my great reads were 'The Abigail's Journey' and the 'Greatest of These'. One thing I also like about her writings is all her stories are Bible-based, you will see that every chapter reflects God's grace and love.

Well, I just thought perhaps this time I could reciprocate what Judith Bronte has been sharing me thru her books by sharing my reading experience in my blog. I know that by doing this, I had my share of help in spreading the word of God.

Happy reading!

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If
- you have already visited this site
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- you are my follower,

you would notice a decrease in number of my posts.

- if you are visiting here again to check out My Chocolate Heaven, certainly, you are not going to find what you are looking for.

Just recently, I decided to create a new blog that will hold all my posts about my chocolate fountain business. Two of my closest friends and offline followers (I say offline because they don't have blogspot account) suggested that I should keep my business posts in a separate site rather than mixing it with my personal thoughts. Make sense! So here I go, struggling to put a site that would hopefully attacts visitors.

Take a look.... My Chocolate Heaven (MCH Pampanga).

Your thoughts are very welcome!

And hey, 9 days left to vote and I'm giving away emblems! Don't miss it!

How to Increase your Page Rank

Few Steps to Increase your Page Rank, a re-post from Ems. Tips I found very helpful.

1. Update your website every day by adding more unique content. If you site has some information for a visitor then it is 100% chance for him to come back to your site again.

2. Provide inside linking to your website. For example you can provide a link of your previous and next articles on an article page. Or you can provide a list of related articles so visitor can remains a long time on your website.

3. Create sitemap for your website (XML based for Google and text based for yahoo) then submit sitemap to Google and submit sitemap to Yahoo. Get a Google webmaster account and sign in there to see your website statistics. It will also tell you if you site is indexed or not, and your page rank in Google. click here to Generate Sitemap

4. And the most important tip. Trade your link with other web owners. Put their link on your website and they will put your link in them. This is for free and the very fast way to improve your visibility in search engines. ongsono.com is here to help you to trade or exchange your link

I found the tip # 4 the easiest and effective, although of course tips 1-3 are effective but this one I got results in just a short time.

And here's my personal tips:

5. Keep on reading and following other blogs too. It helps increase your readers and eventually your page rank.

6. Start a contest, a trivia or anything your visitors, co-bloggers and readers can participate.

Happy blogging everyone!

Another career realization

The world is evolving.

The universe is moving forward.

The age and civilization we have now is far greater than what we had before.

Lots of changes happening.

Every thing is in great advancement and the question is are you reflecting the latest changes?

No, I'm not talking about fashion only. I'm talking about every thing in general. What's in, what's new and what's in demand from fashion, technology, profession, etc.

Last Saturday, I happen to take sometime off with friends, actually, all of them are previous office mates.

We exchanged chats and laughs about the silly things we did back days. Of course, matters about work is unavoidable.

With all the bits and pieces of life and career updates from each other, I silently evaluated myself. Where am I now?

Career-wise, I think I am being left behind.

Some years ago, all of us were on the same level of knowledge. Fresh grads, first job.

Knowledge-wise, all of them had moved forward for better career-advancement.

I am an IT Professional, my specialization involves testing the software applications developed to suit the business needs of our client. There are several techniques, process and tools involve that a Software Tester like me should know.

My work is in line with technology. Technology evolves at a very fast pace. Last Saturday, realization again hits me to keep abreast with times. To learn the hottest trends or the latest technology. To KEEP on learning.

Now what would I do?

This is something that needs planning. It would involve shifting career or shifting company (I guess, anyone who read my post 'Stay or Quit? It's your Choice' will understand why I came up with these two choices).

Participate in the poll and get an emblem for your blog

Hi everyone,

I just would like to have a little survey of my blog and the impact of its content on my readers. Please take time to participate. Appreciate it, thanks.

Please let me know thru comments if you had casted your vote. I will be giving a little token for your blog later once the poll is closed.

Here's the deal: Once you vote, I will tag you and include your link in my poll closing post.

Want this emblem? then vote now? Lots of emblems available!



(Thanks for Scrapblog)

Note: Poll closes on November 27, 2009.