Mommy Layouts
Myspace Layouts and Livejournal Layouts by Lauren
I was checking out my daughter’s Myspace and Livejournal Layouts and was surprised to see that Naruto topped the list. I don’t see anything beautiful with the Naruto art. The page views says it all
A week ago, I received a call from Miriam, the chairperson of the VoIPCon Philippines Event Management Company thanking me for the wonderful photos and the VOIP convention entry I blogged about the event. I attended that convention in search for a [tag]VoIP[/tag] reseller in conjunction with future expansion plans for my online business. Miriam wanted to meet up with me because she wanted to have some sort of exchange deal for the upcoming [tag]VoIP Philippines convention[/tag] in March 2007. Right away, I explained that I have limited financial resources but I can help with the logistics.
Yesterday I met up with Miriam and Mar, her Operations manager. Mar expressed gratitude for the great photos of the VOIP event. I was surprised. “really? Why?”
Mar explained “We hired an expensive professional photgrapher who gave us 1000 photos but most of it were heads. We liked your angles! ”
I laughed “That’s because I was a participant and blended very well with the crowd. I mean Speaker Jose de Venecia’s bodyguard probably thinks I am harmless”
I was thinking, maybe amateur photobloggers see the event in another perspective. They shoot to capture the human emotions, that certain “moment”. Like in this photo below, I could not get inside the hall so instead I took a shot of the photographers.
No I haven’t watched Sukob but my daughter thinks it’s a more horrific film than The White Lady. Notice how the Philippine Movie industry is spewing Filipino film [tag]horror[/tag] genre like its Asian counterparts? As the movie’s title (““Sukob“) states, the movie is about all the horrible things that happen when two siblings are married within the same year.
Well fellow bloggers, my sister B and I married on the same year, 1985. Another sister , M got hitched in 1986 and another sister, L in 1987. And guess what? We all encountered marital problems like most marriages. But how would I know it back then? The year 1985 was originally reserved for me. Oh yes, we had to book our wedding dates in advance as my father is overly superstitious. Dad was a typical traditional Filipino father. Also, we wanted to play it safe. M wanted to get married in 1985 as well but gave in to me because I was the older sister. Besides , Butch and I were already steadies for 7 years. M and her fiancee just met that year. M thought we should get the wedding date of May 1985. I had seniority and first priority. One day in October 1985, B suddenly announced her [tag]wedding plans[/tag] for November 1985. M and I were furious.
How could you? Don’t you know one of us will have bad luck? I cried.
M protested “ I gave in to Noemi because I didn’t want both of us to be married the same year”
B argued “That’s just a superstition!”
I didn’t expect much of the Philippine Idol last sunday night . I thought our Filipino contestants were subdued compared to their American Idol counterparts. If you followed the past American Idol seasons, the audition is the wackiest part of the show. The [tag]Philippine Idol[/tag] Season 1 proved to be just as funny and entertaining with certain quirks that is peculiar to the Filipino culture.
That [tag]stage mother[/tag] in the photo must be so proud of [tag]Erika Jill Bautista[/tag] . As Erika sang, the mom engaged in small talk with Ryan Agoncillo. Sometimes, she listened through the walls. Erica has an hearing impairment (35 decibels) in one ear that she has to wear a hearing aid. Inspite of her hearing impairment, she sings pretty well.
That’s why the judges called the mother inside so she could hear the good news. The look in her face is magical just like any proud mother would react to a daughter’s achievement.
My 41 year old baby brother in Missouri (I still call him baby brother because I took care of him) wants me to be his wedding coordinator for a church [tag]wedding[/tag] in the Philippines. My brother and his wife did not have a church wedding 14 years ago due to financial challenges. Now that he is a successful neurologist, he dreams of a marriage with God’s blessing. He has indeed been blessed through the years with 4 lovely children, a lucrative medical parctice and a devoted wife. I told him that weddings in the Philippines is not the same as it used to be. I started to look around for wedding fairs. The last time I attended a wedding bazaar was in 2004 for Lauren’s debut plans. Just looking at the prices for photography, venue, catering , cake and other perks for Lauren’s debut could easily cost 150,000 pesos ($2,500.00) at the least. My daughter dubbed it “A not so typical debut celebration” and happily, the total expenses were only 80,000 pesos ($1,500) for 100 guests. Divisoria is my friend. My brother was impressed that I coordinated a “sort-of-grandiose” celebration . But weddings are different! There are a 101 considerations. I told him that I would shop around for a wedding events coordinator who will coordinate with me.
I have been tagged by Niceheart to list down six weird things about myself. Yet another [tag]meme[/tag].
So here are 6 weird things or habits about me. Beware I am obsessive compulsive in most of these weird habits.
1. I like my books to be arranged neatly in the bookshelves from tallest to shortest. Mind you, the books have to be aligned in a straight line too. Something like this
Actually, when I trained our helper to fix books from tallest to shortest , she did an even better job. I think she became even more OCD than me. Or was it she got contaminated with my obsessive disorder?
2. I want my bedspread carefully folded on the bed with very little crease. I have to pull it together with my other helper on the other end to attain an “ironed look”. I drive my daughters crazy by telling them to do this. I’ve since left them to fix their dorm beds the way they want it to be but at home, I end up pulling it for that “ironed look” when they are gone. Something like this:
I never used to have this strange habit but like number 1, my helper did a better job and I got hooked on that no-crease bedspread look.
The only reason we watched Regal Film’s thriller movie, The White Lady was because Joel Nunez (writer for the movie) is a batchmate of my husband at the College of Law. “Let’s show some support to my friend’s endeavor”, my hubby goes. After watching Sadako in “The Ring“, no other hororr movie beats it. Scary for means literally holding on to your seat. Inspired by the famous urban legend about the ghost that haunts Balete Drive, “White Lady” has been reinvented and relocated to some liberal arts school in UP Los Banos. There, the school’s most popular students meet horrific fates one by one, realizing that they are the target of a vengeful ghost. “The White Lady” plot was predictable for me and the “computer graphics” needed a bit more tweaking. Some of the animated CG’s came out too stiff. I’m so out of the loop when it comes to young Filipino movie stars. I recognized Boots Anson Roa only. This new half-Korean starlet, Iwa Moto had too much makeup for a school setting but she played the bitchy role to the hilt. Now I can’t imagine how college students could be so mean. The plot reeks of high school’s mean Queen Bees. The urban legend “White Lady” in Balete Drive seemed more spooky than this remake. However, if you’re looking for entertainment, the movie gave enough of that .
It’s a rare occurence for me to watch Tagalog movies. I think the last Filipino movie I watched was Cesar Montano’s Visayan movie, Panaghoy sa Suba. Being a Cebuana, the Visayan dialect brought so much childhood memories. Every scene flowed smoothly into the next, thus allowing audiences to further appreciate the film’s captivating cinematography. Much as I want to support Philippine movie industry, the plot is just not interesting enough to hold my attention. During the mid seventies, Filipino films were at its best. Remember, Lino Brocka’s Maynila: Sa mga kuko ng liwanag (Manila in the Claws of Light) in 1975? The movie was picked by 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, a fantastic resource for film lovers. That’s how excellent the movie is. The acting was not that remarkable, but the simple plot and storyline made each character as memorable as the next. Those were the days when the plot was character driven . Too bad, the Philippine Culture and Information official website did not classify the movie as “World Class Filipino Movie” (as of 1997).
In this new millenium, which movie classifies as world class Filipino movie?
My purpose for attending the Sulong Negosyo at Market! Market! was to meet Lynn, the owner of Crazy Choco. She sells Chocolate Fountain and fondue set and I’ve been meaning to buy the latter. See, I took photos of her Crazy Choco booth in Fil-Negosyo Expo 2006 last month. Fortunately for her, two customers surfed my photo gallery and saw the chocolate fountain photo flowing with Belgian Chocolate. Yum. The good news was these gallery visitors bought from her. I was hoping she’d give me a discount on the fondue set which is priced at 1,200 pesos. So anyway, armed with my digital camera and fresh from my gym workout, I headed towards the exhibits.
The Sulong Negosyo at Trade Hall A, Bonifacio Global City is sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry. Over 100 exhibitors showed various products from all over the Philippines. When I saw the expo, I totally forgot about my purpose there . I was fascinated with the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME ) EXPO’s barangay/village fiesta concept that simulated a small community with a barangay hall where business name registration, business counseling and advisory services were undertaken. Even supportive banks. There was also a town plaza concept where video programs promoting the services offered by various institutions to SMEs can be viewed. There’s a seminar rooms where skills and managerial briefings useful to would-be and existing entrepreneurs are conducted . And lastly a commercial area (Pamilihan) was setup for participating SMEs to retail their products and/or promote their franchise businesses.
Today, the government is actively supporting our micro entrepreneurs with their One Town One Product (OTOP) .This was merely a concept when I worked for the Small Scale industry in the early 1980s. If you’re interested to start a business one day, one should attend Guide to RA 9178 Barangay Micro Business Enterprises Act of 2002 to be held on Friday , at 5:00 to 6:00 PM. This is a remake of previous laws in the past but the classification of a micro business’ asset has now been raised to 3 million pesos.
Research on small and medium scale enterprises development was my pet project before I settled down to become a mother and home maker in 1987. I can see that there is indeed some progress through the years. We can’t rely solely on overseas employment income to sustain our economy. Together with the development of Information technology sector, agro-industries, and our small and medium and micro-enterprises, our country’s economy will surely boom.
View the photo gallery of the Sulong Negosyo-SME EXPO at Market! Market!
The Jollibee Earthworm burger rumor is old news but to see the keywords in their website is news. View the HTML source of Jollibee Hamburger website. And what do you see?
META NAME=”object” CONTENT=”jollibee food corporation, earthworm, earthworm hamburger, earthworm hamburger issue, earthworm hamburger patties, earthworm meat, earthworm meat price, earthworm price, earthworms, earthworms price, eating fast food, jollibee food corporation, earthworm, earthworm hamburger, earthworm hamburger issue, earthworm hamburger patties, earthworm meat, earthworm meat price, earthworm price, earthworms, earthworms price, eating fast food, jollibee food corporation, earthworm, earthworm hamburger, earthworm hamburger issue, earthworm hamburger patties, earthworm meat, earthworm meat price, earthworm price, earthworms, earthworms price, eating fast food, jollibee food corporation, earthworm, earthworm hamburger, earthworm hamburger issue, earthworm hamburger patties, earthworm meat,………….”
Now I don’t know if their website got hacked or the webmaster purposely placed earthworm hamburger keywords . Whatever for? When I told my girls, they nearly puked .
Earthworm hamburger. Now before you go ewww….read this
J. Angelo Racoma entry on PayPal: One Great Way to Improve the Philippine Economy makes sense.
If only we had PayPal in the Philippines, then I think we would be able to open to the world better means to access to our pool of talent.
Having PayPal in the country would greatly benefit the following people:
Web developers, Designers, Photographers, Writers, Pro-bloggers, and virtually anyone else who can render services remotely while corresponding via the Internet. Their correspondents can pay simply by clicking a few buttons, and that’s it.
This would be a great opportunity for both sides, as it will open up access to the supply of good talent, and as well as open up access to those who are on the demand-side.
Some possible reasons that Paypal won’t deal with us are the following :
1. With regards to anti-Money Laundering, the Philippines is still in the list of non-cooperative countries.
2. Security issues in our banking system.
3. Banks asking for a big share in Paypal transactions.
Having an online business for global markets require a payment gateway. Paypal is known to have the lowest sales transaction but it’s not available in the Philippines. I can’t even get hold of a credit card merchant account in the Philippines’ financial institutions what with the exhorbitant rates and restrictions required. I availed 2checkout.com to resell my services . One can be a vendor with a $49 signup fee.
Technically, one can get a Paypal account if you have an accomodating relative in a paypal enabled country like the USA to do the paypal transactions for you. The problem is Paypal recognizes the Philippine IP address if you intend to login their Paypal website. This is not a long term soluution to having a paypal account.
What we can do is :
lobby for inclusion as a PayPal enabled country with our senators, congressmen or politicians.
Read other related blogs on the Paypal inclusion of the Philippines