-PusangKalye-

Upon checking my MSN mail, i saw an ad of the Windows Live SkyDrive on the banner on top of the page. I got a bit interested so i clicked on and was redirected to the Windows Live SkyDrive page where i learned more about it. So its one of the new services offered by Windows Live which gives you free 5 GB of password-protected online file storage. You can use it to store and access your files anywhere privately or allows you to share files with others too. It is accessible anytime you login using Windows Live ID. With all the free online file storage out there, i think i could use this one when needed. I kinda trust Microsoft more than any other websites offering the same service.

Finally, after two and a half years, our yearbook is finally released! Whew! actually we though this moment wouldn’t happen anymore after not hearing much news about it after graduation and getting a bad news that some list were lost. So last Saturday, I went to PLM to get my copy. Well, i was excited and it was nice to see good old friends and classmates. There a lot of changes in the university as well but still i’m glad i was able to find my way around – it’s not much of a big change anyway. Our yearbook is kinda heavy but it looks okay. It has the title of “The Pioneer” with an explanation on the first page. Pages are categorized by colors which represent each college and looking on the sides, it would be very easy to know which one is mine – the CET or the College of Engineering and Technology. Pages are colored red and obviously its the thickest. So i flipped the pages and looked up for my name. Good thing the names were listed alphabetically so i easily found myself. It felt funny seeing myself on it, glad that my picture and info didn’t get lost. I gave a quick laugh on the description i had given for myself thinking that time thinking i was so college-ish. Some info are already outdated like my old blog url and my mobile and home numbers. I think the only info that remains to be true is my home address and my email address. hehe

*Too bad the images aren’t that clear, thanks to my good old samsung phone..hehe

Last friday, we celebrated a Moon Cake Festival at the office, courtesy of the Filipino-Chinese employees in our department. It started off with a free light dinner at around 5:30pm. There’s pork barbeque, lumpiang shanghai, pork siomai, pichi-pichi, pansit malabon, and pansit puti. By 6:15 the dice game started and i’m on table 12. Well, i’m pretty much lucky because from the first turn that i had, i always won a prize from the 4th, 5th, and 6th group consisting of food/snacks. I had a bottle of C2 apple, a box of chocolate mallows, a box of tiny chocolates, 2 gummy worms, a company ballpen, and a box of hello panda. Too bad i wasn’t that lucky enough to win prizes from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd group consisting of gadgets and appliances, hehe. But anyway, at least i enjoyed the night and went home with someone rather than nothing

Here’s some tidbits about Moon Cakes and the Moon Cake Festival:

Mooncakes are Chinese pastry traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2-3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. They are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, or in Chinese, Zhongqiu Jie, is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese people and Vietnamese people (even though they celebrate it differently), dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China’s Shang Dynasty. It was first called Zhongqiu Jie (literally “Mid-Autumn Festival”) in the Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually around mid or late September in the Gregorian calendar. It is a date that parallels the autumn and spring Equinoxes of the solar calendar. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.

The Moon Cake Festival also is a time for friends and family to get together, enjoy sumptuous meals and play the MoonCake Dice Game. All the game requires are six dice and a china bowl. Just throw the dice into the bowl – and the different combination you get stand for different ranks of awards you will win. The game has six ranks of awards, which are named as the winners in ancient imperial examinations, and has 63 different sized mooncakes as prizes. But due to practical reasons, most Chinoys use toys, household items, school supplies, chocolates, chips or money as prizes. The magic number in this game is the number 4 “the red four”. It is believed that the winner will be very lucky in the coming year.

*the prizes i won..

A lot of people want to have their own business even if they have to start up small. But starting a business needs a lot of work and most importantly one would need money. It’s easy if you have big savings but what if you’re just a regular employee with earnings just enough for your monthly expenses or an individual with savings but not enough as a capital to start a business with? Well, Small Business Loans come to the rescue!

Whether you are starting big or small, its easy to get small business loans for your small business financing needs. Use your personal savings and combine it with small business loans or use the loans alone as a capital for your start-up business. A lot of companies offer small business loans for everyone so be sure to choose the right one for you. Some nice features like that of UnsecuredSolutions are high loan amounts, affordable rates/low interests, great terms, pre-qualification, fast approval, no upfront fee, no pre-termination/pre-payment fee, easy processing, experienced and trusted, and guidance from loan experts.

Now, having your own sari-sari store, retail store, food booths/food carts, fast food chain, boutique, salon, car wash shop, laundry shop, water refilling station, and many more types of small business is not impossible anymore because there are people and companies willing to help you make your dream come true fast and easy with small business loans.

It seems that i don’t feel like eating my packed lunch today and i’m craving for something else which i still can’t figure out til now. But anyway, i had my usual rice and hotdogs for breakfast at home and i still have some pringles and cookies left from yesterday here at my desk. I like the taste of this chocolate chunks cookies – milk chocolate macadamia variant i’m munching on right now though i seem to be craving for some oatmeal cookies. I just finished eating a slice of pizza and then Alsie (my officemate and friend) gave me a banana (saba) which really delighted me. I’m so happy to have one coz i already had the last piece we have at home yesterday so i only have a ponkan for my fruit dessert for lunch today. Anyway, that’s it for my food thoughts. I wonder what i’ll have for lunch..hmmm…

Just today, i started using a patience meter in my Windows Live Messenger status message at the office. It will help others to know how to deal with me like when to talk to me normally or when to crack a joke or when to ask stupid questions etc.

Basically, it all started when this new hire in our team (well i think he’s more than 3 months now) started asking help from me for a specific product. As always, its my job to help especially if it concerns my products. However, after i gave him the help he needed, it didn’t stop there. He continued asking question on how to and why it is’t working and stuffs like that with another product. I really got pissed off since most of his questions are easy and are available in the published documentations we have and its as if i’m already doing his task step by step. I already told him a lot of times to find what he needs in the documents instead of asking right away. And yet, he still keeps on asking and whenever im explaining something, i had to explain it 3 or more times before he gets it. No offense, but i’m trying to be nice to him and be helpful but why can’t he help himself? Its obvious he isn’t that smart and has low comprehension but i just wish he tries to improve himself. I get pissed easily when someone keeps on asking me about something which can be found in our documents. Why can’t he have the initiave to do some searching before bothering others?(and i’ve been telling him a lot of times before already to “check the documents, its there”). It’s okay for me to help, but for easy stuffs that can be found on the table, please help yourself. I’ts not my job to spoonfeed everything.

Now back to my patience meter, after i had it with that guy and told my co-functional lead about his staff, and shouted silently on my own, my patience meter which dropped to 5% finally came up to 25%. Good thing lunchbreak came and so i was able to relax and my patience meter is starting to rise again.

A summary of how i describe my patience meter:

85-90% I’m cool! everything’s normal
75-84% trying to keep it cool…
50% warning! watch your words!
26%-49% i’m definitely not in the mood! only really important stuffs accepted!
below 25% – don’t bother me at all! (except for my higher ups of course.. lol)

While browsing through my inbox, I came across a forwarded message to me last year. It was one of those short stories that I really like and I can relate to… well, not 100% but the thought it gives, is almost the same as mine. I guess I’m a woman who can be independent but of course it wouldn’t hurt to have that special someone

Pharmanex is a company that offers health products from vitamins, food supplements to lotions, body scrubs, etc. They are famously known with their NU Skin line (NuSkin). Basically, its a company that markets itself through networking either thru finding someone that will actively sell their products or just recruit and recruit people under them.

Personally, i have tried some of their products before and i think they’re pretty much okay except that the price is kinda high. As for the company itself, i could say they are just like all other networking companies where you will attend a seminar with a very impressive speaker and a believable presentation. And when you sign up, its either you will sell the product or you’ll recruit people under you to join.

So what makes Pharmanex/Nu Skin different? With all honesty, I am pretty much aware of such companies since i was in elementary if i remember it correctly. My father and my aunts/uncles have been involved in many different networking companies and as a kid tagging along, i’ve learned some lessons in this business and i became familiar with the process – from recruiting up to the seminars conducted. So to say, they’re all just the same. So what i notice that makes Pharmanex/NU skin is the way they recruit people which i now call “false marketing strategy”. At first, i thought it was just the person who first invited me to the seminar who had this fooling tactic. But i lately, i learned it has become the tactic of most members.

It all started early last year when i received a phone call from a girl who told me that i was referred by Berna (who happened to be someone i met at the office). She asked if i am interested in trying the job opportunity she’s offering. She said she’s from a company (i forgot the name) and told me they needed 2-3 people to fill in the slots. Then thinking it was something to try just for the sake of trying, i agreed and she told me to meet her at 26F Trafalgar Tower in Makati and bring my resume. I went and was shocked to find out i have been fooled. It was actually a seminar for Pharmanex/Nu Skin. I was really mad at her that time and i wanted to tell her how mad i am and i didn’t like it that she tricked me. But since i have tried the products already and i’m already there, i sat down and just listened. Besides, i have nothing to lose. But then i realized i am listening to the very same type of seminar my father and aunts/uncle went to before. The speaker sounds very promising and fun – well they’re all like that anyway. But in the end, they never convinced me. Besides, i’m not into selling especially those type of expensive products and i’m not into recruiting people either.

Anyway, i brought up this topic so that it can help anyone who might be searching about it too. I have been a victim of false marketing, recruitment strategy or misrepresentation of jobs. Yesterday, a close friend of mine was fooled into attending them. He invited me to come with him for business project a friend of his invited him to. But since i’m not available, i wasn’t able to come. Then early this day, i realized that the trafalgar tower sounds familiar to me. So i googled it and there i found out that its the office of Pharmanex/Nu Skin. And worse, i found out many has been victimized by false marketing strategies or misrepresentation in jobs. I realized it wasn’t just the tactic of the girl who first invited me but it seems to be a common tactic of the company members.

Honestly, i don’t have anything against the company and the products and i’m not saying they are a scam nor every member uses this strategy. My point here is that the strategy that some used is not good. I mean, i for myself don’t like to be fooled so why would i fool others? and i don’t think its good to start a business relationship with someone that started with a lie. That girl could have honestly told me about the company and the product so that if i attended, it would be of pure interest and not because i was expecting something else. They mislead people and fool/trick people just for the sake of having them attend their seminar. Yes they don’t oblige you to sign up but you were forced to attend the seminar indirectly. So for me, if ever i would sign up or join such businesses, i would prefer to register under someone who told me the truth and invited me rather that someone who told me a lie. So i hope the best for those “honest” members and i hope the worst for those “liars”. White lies or recruitment strategy, a lie is still a lie. And nothing good will happen especially in business if it starts with a lie.

A lot have been victimized already by their strategy. Don’t believe me? Well google it and see for yourself….otherwise, check out this posts i’ve seen and read!

How to Detect Misrepresentation in JOBS
i almost fell for that one – NUskin
New Recruitment Strategies By Companies?
Recruitment Strategy? Beware and Be Aware!
The Networking Rant
15F Octagon Building

Add-on: For the sake of my close friend (who was very active recruiting people with this company), he basically agreed that my opinion and everything i said here in my post is true. He just wants to point out that the reason he’s into this company so much is because he was lucky enough to be part of a group that helps each other recruit people. That’s all they do is help each other recruit people under them to earn. They never had to sell. Besides, the referral fee is good compared if you do the same with other networking company and they pay. So in short, it doesnt really matter what networking company you join as long as they pay good and pay you coz you’ll just be doing the same thing – sell their product or recruit people to join. And if you’re in the recruiting people to join to earn, you should either have lotsa friend or good people skills to convice others to join or be lucky enough to be part of a group that helps you have people under you. And these my friends, will do earn you money and is true to any networking company.

September 07, 2008 Sunday is the National GrandParents Day as celebrated here in the Philippines. It’s the day to let our Grandparents (our Lolo and Lola) know that we value their existence and we are thankful to have them. And though we can always show them our love and care, this day should be extra special.

Mommy and Daddy are more than just the normal grandparents to me. Since the day i was born, they are the ones who took care of me (except for the time that i was taken away by my mother) and i grew up under their care. They helped me gain my second life after the tragic experience my mother gave me that almost killed me slowly as a little kid. They took care of me, showed me love, and guided me all the way up to now that i’m already working.

I love them because they not only became grandparents to me but they were also like real parents. They are always at my side and helped me through a lot of things from problems in school, taking care of me when i’m sick, going to graduations, sending me to school early in the mornings for my field trips, fixing my driver’s license and passport, lending me money when i’m short in budget, etc.

Sometimes I do admit that I get irritated with them but it was never about anything against them. Its just because of my short patience at times or my moody attitude. Like during the times when Mommy would be talking about something for the Nth time that i could say her next words silently in my mind. I understand grandparents are like this already and I don’t blame them. Instead I always look interested whenever I listen to them. And besides, when its about life lessons, I know they just want to keep on reminding us about those things to keep us on track. And then when Daddy is a little drunk, he will keep on talking about us like we’re already old and we should learn to cook for ourselves and stuffs like that but then the next morning, he would still wake up early and prepare my breakfast and packed lunch. Yes, he always does that even if I didn’t ask him to. Another is when they always call us to eat and they would get mad if we don’t come asap when they call us, even if i’m still full, i had no choice but to eat. But then I know they just want us to eat on time and I should be thankful we have food and well i do get happy anyway whenever i see them happy when they see us eating well. When Mommy became weak that she couldn’t cook much anymore, Daddy became our house chef. He always make good and delicious meals. I appreciate it when he wakes up early to prepare our breakfast and my packed lunch, when he always let me have my favorite shrimp and crabs every time he can, when he always think of what i will have for lunch the next day, when Mommy buys me my favorite fruits whenever they go to the market, when they always make sure we have something to eat even for merienda.

One thing I like about them is that at their old age, they seem to be like young sweethearts. They are still very sweet and loving to each other that one would really admire the love they have for each other. From having a fairytale-movie-like love story of a rich guy not inheriting any wealth for marrying a poor girl and choosing to live with her, their courtship up to married life ups and downs, to being the sweetest old couple to date. They made me believe that true love is indeed true and we can only have the perfect partner if we ask God for it.

I love Mommy and Daddy. I wouldn’t be who I am andwhere I am today if not for them. Their guidance, care, and love are priceless. I thank them for everything they did for me. And I thank God that even if i have a broken family and a not-so-good life, I am still lucky to have grandparents like them who makes each day special and worthwhile.

To my Mommy and Daddy and to all the good Grandparents in the world, HAPPY GRANDPARENTS DAY!!!

SM Manila is on a 3 day sale from September 5-7 and like most Saturdays, i found myself walking around the mall doing four things – buying my usual stuffs in Watsons or at the supermarket, paying bills at SM Bills Payment, grabbing some snack from food booths or dining at fastfoods, or window shopping. And since yesterday was part of the 3-day sale, obviously SM Manila was jampacked with people and it was really hard to walk around properly. But anyway, aside from my usual routine, i had to spend around 3 hours in the luggage and bags section just to buy a bag. Yep, since my tentative flight schedule would be on October, one the things in my To Do list is to buy a bag. It was a tough search since most sales personnel try to get my attention since i’m a sure buyer that time. It was quite of a fun experience too since there was this guy from a local brand whom i call Mr. ADHD since he was really like a child with ADHD and he kept on following me around and then trying to prevent me from getting near the sales personnel of another local brand and keep on telling me tips on which kind of bag is better and in the end if i won’t get the local brand he’s insisting me to buy, he suggested to just go for international brands like Samsonite, American Tourister, Delsy, etc. I never thought it would be difficult to find a perfect bag that is within my budget and thank goodness that i found one after more or less 3 hours of searching. Thanks to the sale day that i got my Delsy bag at 30%. I like its look and features and i was pretty sure it will be one good sturdy bag. Plus since its an international brand, it has the warranty of getting repaired/replaced by the airline just in case it gets broken while inside the airline. Delsy is tagged as the number 2 luggage manufacturer in the world and known with its superior quality and its lower price compared with its competitors but its packed with lots of good features. Anyway, I know I made a good choice