June 2006

A Biblical Portrait of Marriage

wedding2small.jpgLast week, Cathy invited us to join the Tuesday [tag]bible study[/tag], A Biblical Portrait of Marriage by noted Christian author and speaker Bruce Wilkinson. It drew my interest. The study covers six part series on diverse topics such as sex to spirituality, from in-laws to God’s laws where Dr. Wilkinson addresses couples at every level of maturity and happiness. It was only the second session then and we could still make it. I quickly messaged my dear husband in Google Talk but he gave me a lukewarm response “how far!! I’m lazy . I can only leave at 7:00 PM“. I was determined to convince him that night.

In my sweetest and loving mode, I cuddled close to him.

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Letting out Anger

galit.jpgI am angry at this person. If I was working on my recovery program, I wouldn’t get angry. If I was a good Christian, I wouldn’t feel [tag]angry[/tag]…. If I am really using the daily affirmations about how happy I am, I wouldn’t be angry. Those are the old messages that seduces us into not feeling again. Anger is a part of life. We need not dwell in it but we can’t afford to ignore it. So why am I angry, you ask?

Without going into sordid details, it’s about my TV interviews and our grief journey. This person hasn’t even seen any of my TV interviews . This person just overheard it from someone. Who knows how that person related the interview? Yes , this person has no gender because this person could be anyone. Look, I don’t even want to appear on TV. I am a shy person. But after going through the Purpose Driven Life, I have learned that…

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Vacation Ownership

Read Danvil Plans, Crown Regency, Nuskin and other Scams

crown regency“You have just won a FREE 4 days 3 night package for two including 2 children from Crown Regency Hotel.“, the caller congratulated me. I know there is always a catch to freebies. They got my name from a “raffle stub” that I dropped at the Fil-Negosyo Expo 2006. The lady sounded a bit defensive “There is no catch. The gift certificate is valid for 6 months and you have the choice of staying in our Mactan or Davao Hotel. All you need to bring is a valid ID. You don’t even have to bring cash, credit card or a checkbook“. Something about the “too-good-to-be-true” call piqued my curiosity. This must be a new marketing gimmick which I needed to experience. When I relayed the news to my husband, he immediately thought of a time sharing scheme. When we arrived at the reception area, we found out that we could only get the gift certificate after listening to a 90 minute audio visual presentation. I couldn’t imagine why it would take that long to view the hotel features.

So the catch is this. No, it’s not time sharing. It’s a club membership of sorts. The guy introduces the concept of a dream vacation and the expenses it entails. But with an investment on a lifetime Club Ultima membership, your vacation expenses are not lost forever. One can avail of discounted hotel rates around the world including the Philippines. Their partnership with Interval International is very appealing.

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Pinoy Entrepreneurship: Fil-Negosyo Expo 2006

fil negosyolectureI had a lot of time to kill before picking up my daughters at their dorm yesterday. I knew about the Fil Negosyo Expo 2006 at the 5th floor Megatrade Hall, SM Megamall starting on June 23 till July 2, 2006 . My curiosity got the better of me. What are the latest small business ventures that one can enter to these days? I wanted to see if some existing businesses could complement my ecommerce plans. A quick glance at the booths showed that most of the business ventures didn’t need a lot of capital.

pinoy expofil-negosyo

enegosyodloads

A number of e-load dealers touting “1 SIM Load all” in the expo proved that the e-load retailing is a multi-billion industry. There was the eNegosyo, d-loads, Load Xtreme and Megaload. One thing in common with this business is networking opportunity and low capital requirement . For instance the capital for the retailing with networking business is 500 pesos ($9.40) enegosyo , 800 pesos ($15.00) for d-loads , and 16,000 pesos ($301) for Load Xtreme. Megaload claims it has no networking so its capital outlay is only 299 pesos ($5.60). It looks like Load Xtreme makes a killing just on networking model.

Visit my Pinoy Travel Booking Engine and take that romantic vacation to the Islands of the Philippines. Compare our Cheap Airplane Fares.

megaloadLoad XtremeSince I already had an eLoad retailing at home, I invested 500 pesos at eNegosyo to complement my existing eload services. Why enegosyo? Though they are relatively new, they had a professional demonstration at their booth. Well, it’s also because their financial goals seemed more realistic. It remains to be seen if they are really reliable but hey, 500 pesos isn’t going to kill me. Take risks, right! (Add me as your sponsor if you’re joining eNegosyo )

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Blogger’s Rights


Read EFF's Legal Guide for Bloggers
My daughter receives threats and insults from internet bullies every now and then because of her “bombastic” blog entries. I recall the times she was bullied on her entries about speaking english over tagalog, the jologs, the conyos and lastly, her roomie rants. Sometimes I attribute it to jealousy. One day she asked me if [tag]blogger rights[/tag] exist. Her celebrity entry drew the ire of the stage mother that the latter even threatened to file a complaint to the college dean. Nothing materialized of it. Good thing she didn’t file. My husband-lawyer was ready for a countersuit. My daughter has learned to publish blog entries in private or public mode to prevent harassment from internet bullies. It’s one reason she keeps changing her blog domain name. Anyway I found this site that provides a Legal Guide for Bloggers, a collection of blogger-specific FAQs addressing everything from fair use to defamation law to workplace whistle-blowing. These FAQs are limited to the USA laws but remember, most of our websites are hosted in US servers. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) covers US servers. Some can be applicable to the Philippine blogosphere. A historical first in the [tag]Philippine blogosphere[/tag] was that time the PCIJ blog was slapped with a temporary restraining order. Nothing is FREE and dandy in the blogosphere.

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Stay-at-home dad

Here’s an ABS-CBN Insider interview of J. Angelo, a stay-at-home dad and a professional blogger (Problogger) whom I met in the iBlog summit 2.

Empty Nest Syndrome: A Preview

familyIt was dinner time. Only Butch and I sat by the dinner table. “We’re alone.” My husband sighed. “This is a preview of our empty nest” . My two daughters moved in to their dormitory yesterday. Of course, they will be home during the weekends or on wednesday for my daughter studying in UP. It seems my husband is more emotional than me when it comes to the children . Like I wrote in a previous entry, Butch is my co-homemaker and acts more motherly than me sometimes. Well, I teased “we need to live together in harmony now that we’re alone most of the time.“. He nodded “We have all the time to be ourselves but it’s lonely without the children“. He continued to mope. What we felt is normal. We’ve heard of empty nest syndrome as college students when we left our parents for dorm living. We both came from large families and the empty nest didn’t occur overnight. We had no idea what it was like until both of our children left for semi-independent dorm living. After reading my daughter’s declaration of semi-independent living, I wonder how my husband will take it after she leaves us after graduation. So what is empty nest syndrome?

Empty nest syndrome refers to the grief that many parents feel when their children move out of home. This condition is typically more common in women, who are more likely to have had the role of primary career. Unlike the grief experienced when (for example) a loved one dies, the grief of empty nest syndrome often goes unrecognised, because an adult child moving out of home is seen as a normal, healthy event. Upset parents may find few sources of support or sympathy. In many cases, [tag]empty nest syndrome[/tag] is compounded by other difficult life events or significant changes happening around the same time, such as retirement or menopause. Source

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