Letting out Anger

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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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VoIP Conference 2006

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VOIPJust came from the First International VoIP Conference in the Philippines at the World Trade Center. The conference is timely because the House of Representatives just recently approved the VoIP deregulation bill on June 5, 2006. The Senate has yet to approve it. [tag]Voice Over Internet Protocol[/tag] ([tag]VOIP[/tag]) is a transmission technology that uses the internet to send voice and image in real time. Bah, I’m tired to talk about it so just browse the photo gallery

Vacation Ownership

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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

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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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Menopausal Pregnancy

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No I’m not pregnant. I thought I was. The past few weeks was so stressful. My husband worried over the state of my health. Imagine, if I had blogged “I’m 49 and I’m pregnant“. Would I cry or laugh if that happened? When I confided my fears to my daughter “I don’t want to hear it. It’s disgusting” It must seem embarassing to her if we conceived a baby at our age. Heck, some of my high school classmates are grandmothers already. Not that I want to be a grandma. Five years ago, I thought I wanted to have another baby. My obstetrician-gynecologist did a thorough physical checkup and declared that my eggs were that of a 39 year old woman. The hitch then was my diabetes. My husband and I decided not to pursue another child.

I have been injecting insulin in lieu of oral meds for the past weeks as precaution and just finishing the rest of the stock. It’s not a far-fetched idea to be pregnant at my age. My sister in law mentioned that her sister bore a healthy girl at the ripe old age of 51. My other sister in law is a menopausal baby. Her mom was 46 years old then. I know two other friends who bore their child when they were in their mid-forties. It’s possible but very risky. Dozens of babies are being born every year to women over the age of 50 who have had in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the UK . I don’t think anyone has tried that here in the Philippines. I won’t take my chances. There is an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and hemorrhaging and, because of the additional pressure placed on our older bodies, we are more susceptible to high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia and diabetes. Much as I love babies, I will just wait for my grandchildren to arrive in the far future (erm not anytime soon).

Blogger’s Rights

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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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Empty Nest Syndrome: A Preview

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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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Laughter rings on Father’s Day

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5a.jpglechon_inasal
Cebu Pcoherocebu paellaThe poetry therapy at the Compassionate Friends meeting yesterday made Butch and everyone else in a jovial mood. (see pics here) In our meetings, we laugh and cry as we share our stories. But yesterday, laughter rang out more often the tears. Our facilitator, Victor Emmanuel Carmelo D. Nadera Jr. is a brillant poet and therapist. This poet had such a great sense of humor. He was able to draw out the hidden poet in all of us. Everyone agreed it was one of our most enjoyable meetings. The session probably helped ease the depression of most of the bereaved fathers in the room because right after the meeting, Butch celebrated his cheerful disposition by having dinner out. Normally special occasions like [tag]Father’s day[/tag] bring out twinges of sadness in him . Fortunately the 2 girls joined us at the meeting but were late for the actual session.

We had dinner at Jun Jun’s Cebu Lechon Restaurant at The Fort. The famous Cebu Lechon Inasal (Roasted Pig) , Cebu Pochero (Filipino Beef stew) and Cebu Paella (Spanish Rice dish) was our main course. If you’re a Cebuano, you usually don’t dip your lechon meat with lechon sauce. That’s what I told the girls but probably they are so used to dipping sauces. The lechon meat is already flavorful right to the bones that the sauce just mask the unique taste of our Cebu Lechon. It was a great meal fit for an advanced Father’s Day celebration. Today, we are busy packing up as the girls move out to their dorms tonight.

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Reconnecting with long lost friends

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The blog is indeed a nifty tool for long lost friends who want to reconnect with you.
With the aid of google search, two friends I haven’t heard in years found me through my blog. One is Betty who is now based in Singapore. The last time we saw each other was in Sampaguita Residence Hall at the UP campus in 1978. Suddenly, my memories brought me back to those carefree years when we would gossip on our latest crush , search for dinner or just hang out in our rooms. I don’t know why I lost touch with Betty. It must have been because we left for the province after graduation or we were too caught up looking for jobs. Then there is Bing, my officemate at the UP Institute for Small Scale Industries. She is now in New York. Am I really that bad in communicating with friends whenever a milestone occurs in my life? Bing said that the last time she saw me was when Lauren was a few months old. How terrible I am.

I don’t think I meant to overlook or neglect friendships. I know that there are some friendships that wax and wane , going through cycles throughout the years. Some trail off when one person outgrows the other. I just didn’t know how to take care of myself during my early years of marriage. I thought family should come first. But I know better now. Friends are a joy. Adult friendships can be a good place for us to learn to have fun and to appreciate how much fun we can have with a friend. A friendship is a comfortable place to be ourselves. Bing and Betty are two friends that I want to reconnect. Hopefully I can visit Singapore or New York within the year.

I thought friendster was also another way to communicate with long lost friends until my techno-challenged hubby questioned me in a tone that sounded a wee suspicious. This conversation occured during our troubled marital years.

“Why are you at friendster?“.

“huh? How did you know that?” (sounding a bit defensive after hearing his suspicious tone)

“My fraternity brods saw your Friendster profile.”

“Let me explain. I am in [tag]Friendster[/tag] so that high school or college classmates know how to reach me. Ahhhah. you thought I placed that up because I want to date? Don’t you know friendster is also for social networking? Oh….and did your brods tell you that my photo is that of our son, Luijoe????.”

That shut him up.

My friendster photo has since been changed to our couple photo . And dear hubby is not so technically-chaellenged anymore.