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Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The Five Commandments of Credit Cards




I just read a book titled - I will teach you how to be rich by Ramit Sethi.
In his book he have Six Commandments of Credit Cards but
I modified it and came up with only five for Filipinos, I also added comments with my personal experience with credit cards.

The Five Commandments of Credit Cards
1. Pay off your credit card regularly.
I know everybody heard of this many many times but this should be an established rule so you will not be bound in debt.
The bank charges so much in late fees and finance fees. I think they are charging about 6% of your debt.

2. Get all fees waived on your card.
I was able to do this in my credit cards (I have two of them). I asked them to waive my annual card fees (P1,200).
Surprisingly a friend of mine who has 4 credit cards paid his for the past 3-4 years.:)
When I told him about it he was very very surpised had he known that this was possible
he would have save about P19,000!!!!
So when you get a fee from your bank you need to call them and ask for them to remove it.

3. Automate your credit card payment.
This is a new concept that I got from the book "I will teach you to be rich". This is not part of Ramit's Six Commandments but
I added it here since I found it very helpful.
I asked some of my officemates and some of them pay online.
This will save me the hassle of going to the bank.
This removes the risk of moving the money from one place to another.
If you want to save 10-20% of you income, you can use automation to do that.
All you need to do is to open a bank account where you intend to put your savings to and then automate Fund Transfer from
your ATM to you that bank account.

4. Keep your cards for a long time and keep them active.
For me this just say don't switch from one card to another.

5. Use your rewards!
Also please take note on when your bonus points will expire.
I think you need to call your bank to ask how to use the rewards.
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Monday, March 30, 2009
FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real



Last Wednesday in the Cutting Edge Fellowship, Pastor Noel talked about fear and how it affects our confidence level.

I would like to share to you an acronym of the word FEAR that best describes it:

FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real

Most of our fears possesses some kind of evidence in our mind and from these evidences we consider them as real.
But in a closer inspection we will soon realize that most of them (if not all) are unfounded.
Say for example, a person who is afraid to speak in public (I picked this since according to Reader's Digest, public speaking is America's number one fear) ,
may have the following evidences in his/her mind :
  • He/she is afraid because of previous speaking experience that went south - this is an evidence based on the past
  • He/she is afraid because of another fear - called fear of rejection or fear of failure.
  • He/she is afraid because of self-limitation - "I can't do it" evidence
  • He/she is afraid because he/she has not tried speaking in public before. - I call this the "lack of experience" evidence.
Basing on these we can see that such fear is unfounded. Let me quickly run down each item and refute them:

Previous experience that went south.
This is a common source of fear. This happens when we had a very bad experience in the past that our mind just associate pain to that experience.
We tend to get avoid experiences that will associate us with the pain we experienced in the past. But we all know that the past will not determine our future so regardless of our past experience we should try again. If we failed in speaking in public in the past we need to try again. If we failed in a business venture in the past we should try again. If you failed in getting the girl in the past, then you should try again.

Fear off rejection and failure,
Fear of rejection and failure are probably the most common of fears. We know that while we are still alive in this world we will experience rejection and failure. Why not use rejection and failure to our advantage? How? When we get rejected, we learn from it and consider our approach and presentation. When we fail, we fail forward. Let me share to you a quote from John Maxwell in his book Failing Forward - "the difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure."

Self-limitation
Self-limitations usually roots from childhood. It a result when those who we are with growing up (or mother,father,yaya,aunts, lolo,lola,uncles,older sis and brothers) did not expressed their confidence in us. I have the priviledge of watching my niece and nephew grow up and I can tell you the difference between a kid who is raised with express confindence and those who are not. I have a newphew is is raised in our "traditional Filipino way" of raising kids and another nephew who is raised in what I call "after-listening-to-a-parenting-seminar" way and I can tell you the big difference between how they speak in confidence. As a family we recognized that we always verbalize our confidence with the kids at home. Because we now know that there is a big difference in how kids turn out when you speak postively to them and when you don't.

If you have problem with self-limitation because of how you are raised, I think the best thing to do now is to know that the LORD is confident on you and He trust you.
So you don't have to live like a chicken, you need to live like an eagle. :)You have a choice not to be limited. You can choose to be more and not less.
And as Philippians 4:13 says,"I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO GIVES ME THE STRENGTH".

Lack of experience.
We often curl up when we don't have experience on a particular subject but the truth is, all of us started with no experience.
Those that belong in the top 10 percent today (in any industry) started in the buttom 10 percent. So if we allow lack of experience to stop us then we will never be able to move forward. And we will always be stagnated wondering how life would be if we tried.

Fear is a paralyzing entity that can stop us from becoming what God intends us to do. But knowing exactly what you fear and why you fear them will help you understand that
these fears are simply False Evidence Appearing Real. Good afternoon.

Joseph


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Monday, March 23, 2009
Why I read books?

Why I read books?

One of the problems that I know right now concerning the area of personal development is the lack of interest in reading books. Many people I know ask where I get all the ideas I share to them in conversations, lectures, presentations, and speeches. I don’t know what answer are they expecting from me but my answer will always contain reading books. It is said that there is no substitute in reading books and I found this to be very much true in my life. Reading books has transformed my life in my ways. I can account many of the things I learned and share from reading and trying what I’ve read. Many of the techniques that I apply in my team and many of the strategies that I used in my work came from what I’ve read. And some people will come up to me and ask me how I thought of it. I simply answered that I got them from a book I’ve read. Some people will respond by telling me that they are not readers and it’s good that I already have an appetite in reading. In short, they are saying it works for you because you are a “born-reader” but it will not work for me because unlike you I do not have those desires.

I did not started as a reader of books. I remembered that I love listening than reading the lessons in class. I figured that listening works for me and reading works for others. But there was this teacher who introduced me to the work of reading. In her class I’ve read four novels and submitted a review to her. This is something I’ve never done before. I started enjoying reading but later stopped the habit after graduation. I figured that I should not read any books anymore since there will be no teacher to check for it. I lamely allowed the tides of life to carry me. Until I realized that I felt so unsatisfied being carried by the waters of circumstances and decided to map my course. It was timing that my pastor talked about reading and upgrading your knowledge. I was challenged and was so enthused to read books.

I drop by a bookstore and got myself a book. To my surprise it did not go as well as I thought it should be. It took me awhile to enjoy the book. But I still carried on and carried on until I finished the book. Finishing gave me a new spirit and I desire to finish another one. I gained a new fervor of finishing what I am reading. Its amazing how one leads to another and another until I’ve read a few more books that interests me. I begun to read books about personal development and found that many, if not all, of the authors’ supports reading books even those who do not publish books. So I continued to read books and something wonderful happened, my language changed my, I have more ideas than before, and as I share the ideas that I’ve learned to my colleagues it impresses them. This drove me to read more books and share what I’ve learned. Until I got opportunities that I’ve never thought would be open for me (this soon). The years of reading books and learning opened big opportunities for me. Reading changed me.

Let me share to a quote from Charles “Tremendous” Jones, “Five years from now you will be pretty much the same as you are today except for two things: the books you read and the people you get close to.”
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Book Review: My Sheep Hear My Voice

Title: My Sheep Hear My Voice…
Author: J. C. Hedgecock


I picked up this book in the second week of January of 2009. An evangelist by the name of Dr. Keith Jenkins came to one of our meetings in Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship and shared to us about hearing from God. I was amazed of the concept and decided to ask God to speak to me. I know God speaks through thought and I had previous experience in the past where God really is leading me and speaking to me. But I was not 100% sure it’s all from God. So when Dr. Keith expounded on his experience in this matter it got me excited and remembered my experience with the LORD. So I took the book and read it on my way home. I turned the pages and for some reason I don’t like the book. :) My head is just filled of doubts whether it will work or not.

I went to India and decided to bring it with me. I re-read the introductory part of the book and again I didn’t like the book. When I came back to the Philippines I tried reading again and I was in agony while reading it and the funny part is, I don’t know why. It was then when I continued reading it that I realized that satan does not want me to read the book. My head could not take the idea that I will have to deny myself the lordship of my life and give it to Jesus Christ to be able to hear from God. On top of that, I have my doubts whether it could work. Or whether I will still hear myself or hear God. I was there pulled up and down and side to side. I was very confused, my flesh wants me to stop (for self-preservation), satan is feeding my mind with doubts and God’s WORD is piercing my heart to the point that I can surely say I want to give God everything. The concepts shared in the book were simple but it’s hard to swallow. Many times we just want to live in denial with ourselves and allow truth to pass by. I realized that I am living in sin by lording over my live. I have lived my life very wrongly and the devil does not want me to realize it. I pursed reading it even though it hurts. I prayed many times and ask forgiveness as the LORD revealed to me the things that are stopping me to become what He desires me to be.

I started doing as the book says, surrendering my lordship to Christ because of love and begun to walk in the Spirit. I understand that this will take me awhile to get used to. I love myself too much to let God have the driver seat but I love the Lord and He needs and wants me to give the keys to my life to Him. So I made up my mind to walk in the Spirit and continue doing things that will mortify my flesh. There are times that I forgot who’s driving and I automatically grab the steering wheel (like just few seconds ago) and then I could almost hear God telling me, “let me driver Joseph”. The thing about walking in the Spirit is to decide that God will decide all the decisions that you should make to you need to ask Him. This goes for the “small” and “big” things so this covers all. Proverbs 3:5-6 says,” Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path. The keyword for this verse is the word ALL. So whether we consider the task big or small it does not really matter. :)

Also it entails being constantly thinking what you are thinking. You need to be aware what you are thinking about because everything starts with a thought and so we need to examine every thought that’s going to our head. We need to sort it if it’s from satan or self or God and make the appropriate actions to every source of input. This entails a lot of mental work than just allowing your head to absorb everything.

This is one of honest and straight-forward books that I’ve read. The author obviously is not selling something and all the important aspect is being repeated all throughout the book so the reader will not miss it. We will end-up committing it to memory. I will definitely re-read this book.

I’m sure that if you are reading this you will ask me if I’ve heard from God now. I believe I am. God bless you.
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The 17 Indisputable LAWS OF TEAMWORK

Title: The 17 Indisputable LAWS OF TEAMWORK

Author: John C Maxwell

Believe-it-or-not I started reading this book three or four years ago and I just finished it last night. Why? Because back then when I started reading it I found the ideas presented to be OK. By OK, I mean that the ideas are good but it is something I could not use as of the moment. And there are just times that you don’t want to read an OK book you want to read a more than OK book (my term for an idea that I can use NOW). So after finishing the first and second law of teamwork I put the book down and shelved it. Back then I was not handling a team so I felt that could not relate to The Law of Significance and the Law of The Big Picture. Back then my foresight was still very limited and I did not think that reading about before-hand will come in handy later. I was dead wrong.

When I was assigned a team in the office I already forgot that I had a book on teamwork. It was later when I felt that my team was stagnated and there were issues in my team I could no longer address. I was in dire need of insight when I remembered this book. I read and read and found a lot of team issues that I was experiencing. It prompted me to read some more and try some ideas that was suggested in the book such as in the Law of the Chain and the Law of the Catalyst. Some of them worked immediately and some of them took time. Some ideas like “The Law of the Bad Apple” gave me a new perspective on the role of a leader in a team. Some of the ideas I’ve read I’ve shared it to my officemate – a fellow leader who likes the idea so much. Now the book became an easy reading and the ideas I found in the book gave me a better picture of my role as a leader and as a team member. I have to admit I am still working on some mental and attitude changes that is required of me to be a better leader but the information that I gain is very beneficial for me and for my team. I think this book should be a handbook for every team leader or team member who wants to empower his team. I certainly will review this book and refer to it as many times as I can as I grow and study teamwork and leadership. Let me quote John Maxwell to end this article, “The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, embrace them and empower your team.”





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Friday, March 13, 2009
Give to Caesar what is due to Caesar



Last week and part of this week is "overtime week". All week we need to go overtime... some issues just jumps on you and you have no choice but to deal with them beyond the usual work hours or else you will miss the deadline. I had a chance to speak with a colleague about what is happening and he answered something like, "we don't have that. we can't have overtime". "I bring my work home", he added with pride in his voice. This is something I do not buy into. I think work should be done in the office once you leave the office you should leave work there. Unless of course if you work at home.:) This is one of the boundaries I set on myself. It's what I think is right, why go home and be with your family if your head is still in your work? I believe that when you are at work then be at work. When you are at home then be at home. Also, I believe that in doing that you will be doing your family a great favor. Give to Caesar what is due to Caesar, give to your family (and to yourself) what is due to your family. When I get married and have a family of my own I want to be able to remember this - in the end, no one in his deathbed will ever say to himself (and to others), " I wish I had spent more time in the office."
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Thursday, March 05, 2009
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The week is a bit heavy... regular issues.. changes.. new issues.. training.. moving forward.. moving back.. girlfriend.. to do list... mandatory overtime..novel..book.. study..thinking of business (again).. dates with friends..new church assignment..training..exam..community service..un-updated iPod..newly repaired laptop..sleep-less night..groggy morning..new deadlines..old deadlines..blah blah blah..:)

The wonderful thing in all of these is that I realized that:
  • It's a miracle that I have not broke down despite with all of the pressures I am into.
  • I am sad because I have stopped praying for the past few days.:(
  • The interesting part is that there are so many new things.
  • The good part is that I feel I have grown as a person.
  • The best part in all that happened I know I still love my girlfriend.:-*

She leaves me breathless every time I look at her.:D
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Tuesday, March 03, 2009
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Prevent virus from launching from USB to your PC

I wrote small batch file that will prevent viruses from getting launched from your USB drive to your PC.
What it does is that it modifies the file attributes and then delete autorun.inf

How to use:
1. open Notepad application. (Go to start-> run then type notepad)
2. Copy paste these text:
attrib -r -a -s -h
dir
del autorun.inf

save it to clean.bat .
3. Save it inside your flash drive (USB drive)

From now on, instead of opening directly your USB drive, you need to use the command line first and launch the batch file from there.
So from now on you need to:
1. Insert your flash drive
2. Cancel all attempt by the OS to open you flash drive.
3. Go to command line (Go to start then run then type cmd). This should launch
a black window.
4. Find the drive letter that is assigned to your USB drive (say H:)
5. In the command line, type H: then hit enter. This will change the director to where your USB drive is located.
6. type clean or clean.bat. This should execute all the lines above and delete the autorun file.

You can also type dir and see if there are other files that looks suspicious. They are suspicious because you don't know how those file got there.

I know this looks complicated but this is safer than just opening the USB drive without checking.
Of course you can just go ahead and scan you USB drive with and anti-virus.:)
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Monday, March 02, 2009
Just finished reading...


It's been awhile since I've read any novel. I think the last novel I've read is from Frank Peretti titled, "The Prophet" and I have not finished it. So it's a bit odd for me to pick up Ted Dekker's book, Adam, in Fully Booked bookstore (free advertisement:-)). I am a fan of Ted Dekker in fact I've read three of his books: Thr3e, Blink, and Obssessed. I think Thr3e is one of the best novels I read so far. It's a fast paced novel full of action, adrenalin rush, and mind-bogling twist towards the end of the story. It's the type that keeps you wanting for more and wondering how the story will end. Adam is such a novel.

From beginning to ending, I was caught in the mystery of trying to figure out how the story will turn. The story revolves around an FBI behavioral psychologist named DanielClark who is chasing a serial killer named Eve. Things went a little more intereting when he died and later was brought back to life by her partner Lori Ames (a pathologist). I will not tell more of ths story other than the part that really got me. It's when the story turned from pschological thriller to "something else". It was wonderfully done. In my mind, I was left asking is there such thing as evil? Or is it just a figment of our imagination?

This is another wondeful work from Ted Dekker.
Vote: **** (4 star)
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Road to Taj Mahal

There are so many things I want to blog before writing this post but my friend (who will remain unnamed) told me that she would write her post before she loses the zest of writing about it. I realized that I should do the same. So here it goes............

Last weekend in India, me and my colleagues decided to go to one of the seven wonders of the world - Taj Mahal. We had everything setup by a wonderful Indian lady (who will remain unnamed again) and came Friday morning we are with our bags on our way to New Delhi. To go to Taj Mahal from Calcutta, you have to fly to New Delhi then ride a train or bus to Agra. Or you can ride a train from Calcutta to Agra. We do not have time to ride a train so we took a plane and flew to New Delhi. In Delhi, a man met us in the arport and drove us for 6 hours to Agra. We reached Agra around 10PM. We stayed in a hotel called Howard Park Hotel and slept the whole night.

Itmad-ud-Daula's Tomb
Early morning, we had an Indian breakfast and off we went to tourist spots in Agra. A man by the initials of T. D. guided us in the tour. We started with Itmad-ud-Daula's Tomb also known as Baby Taj. They call it baby Taj because some of the designs were taken from the building.
Below is a photo of me and my colleagues.

This is me trying to get a photo of myself.
Below are two of the many tombs inside baby Taj.

After taking hundreds of photographs we started our way out of Baby Taj. On our way ouut, a reported came by and asked T.D. if they can have a picture of us for Valentines' Day. I told them I don't really mind so they gave me a rose and I went kneeling down in front of my female colleague. They said they will publish the photo after 2PM. We checked it after 2PM and we are on page 3. (http://www.dlamedia.com/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&eddate=2%2f14%2f2009)
Let me explain what the Hindi text written below. The blue text says, "Will you be my Valentine?" The remaining black texts said something like,"a guy proposes her love to the lady in Itmad-ud-Daula's Tomb" hahahaha.. The funny part is, the other photo is a group in Agra against Valentines so if they see us roaming around the city they might confront us. hahahah.. 5Pm that day, we dropped by a store and the a guy with a DLA newspaper asked me, "Is this you?" I smiled and answered, "yeah". Wow I feel like a celebrity.nyahahahaha.. [go to go so more to come later]
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Ads

In my stay in Kolkata I noticed these two catchy ads:
1. Buladi against AIDS. At first I laugh at it (probably because of immaturity) but later on when I asked my Indian friends about it, they are very passionate about this ad that I felt so immature in my initial thoughts. My friends told me how this ad informs men and women to take charge against spreading AIDS.

2. Bell Bajao which means Ring the bell. This is a campaign against domestic violence. I only saw the ad in Hindi but I certainly got the message of this ad. Visit www.bellbajao.com
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Do you matter? How great design will make people love your company


Do you matter? How great design will make people love your company

One of the mangers in our company handed me this orange book maybe as a “reward” for asking questions with the program that the company is giving to the employees. I never thought it could happen.J I always believed that there is no such thing as a free lunch but now I know there is such a thing as a free book. This is my very first book that talks about design. Initially, I thought this book is about design behavior but later on in my conversation with my boss, I found that this is about design per se. So it created a bit of excitement in my part to read such kind of book. As I was perusing the book, I am amazed with it’s content, the author gave compelling argument as to why Company A succeeded and how great design contributed to their success as a business. It’s in this book that I read (once again) the words “total customer experience”. I realized that this is the goal of many companies today – to be design-driven, because this is the only way that the company will matter to the people. Companies today want to matter to the people because this will ensure success in the business. What does it mean to matter? It simply means as answering a YES to this question, “If your company will be out of business tomorrow will your customers miss you or they will just easily move on to your competitors?” The author gave an example that goes like this, “If Apple will go out of business tomorrow, people will go looking for Apple. Why? Because Apple already matter to the customers and the customer will feel that without Apple life will never be the same” Having a “total customer experience” plays a vital role in becoming a design-driven organization. What is total customer experience? I am positive that if I pick randomly 10 employees in our organization today and ask what “total customer experience” means that I will get more than one answer. I realized that there is a need for everyone in the organization to have one mind as to what this term means. If everyone understands what this means and what role each play in the big picture called – being design-driven, then I think this will make any organization’s transition from technology-driven to design-driven easier.

Design is not just about aesthetics its also about the conversation of the our products and services to the customer. I believe the authors calls this “Design Language” Design Language is very important in developing to be a design-driven company. To simply put it, it’s the emotional connection that your product and services has with the customer. We buy because of the promise that a particular product can give us. And this promise is very much emotional. Take for example, iPod, this gadget promises more than just music and/or video player it carries itself a positive stigma of being in the “elite” if you own one. The iPhone is also another success story of a design-driven organization. There are many examples that was given by the authors and you can read all that in the book.

What hit me the most are the words, “design is not just the design team’s job; it’s everyone’s job”. As a software developer, I never thought of design because I thought it’s not my job but then I realize that I have to make an effort to find out where I am and what role should I play in this move to be a design-driven organization.

As a CEO of my personal service corporation, I realized that I have to keep evolving and I have to continuously deliver new services to my biggest client – LXK. So that if I will be out of business tomorrow my client will miss me. It’s only then that I can say, I matter.
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Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

What is the central theme of this book? I am tempted to answer this question but I will defer answering that later in the post. I will however talk about some aspect in the book that truly impressed me. Like the authors answer to, what caused the decline of crime-rate in the US? Or why do drug dealers still live with their parents? Or how the rules of incentives can either be going for you or against you?

First, what caused the decline of crime-rate in the US? Author's answer - The legalization of abortion in year, I-forgot-the-date. If this answer shocks you then let me tell you that make two of us. The rationale behind is that most mothers who want to abort the babies either do not have the (financial and/or mental) capacity to raise kids or who know in their heart they could not do it. These kids if left to live have bigger chance to become criminals in the future. The author presented his argument basing on the statistics but I think the biggest proof is when he presented the date of the first few states in the US who legalize abortion. It showed that the first states that legalize abortion are also the states where the crime-rates are declining in faster rate than the other states that adopted this law decades later. I am presenting this because I find it interesting. I know it's hard to verify this but that’s what the values implied according to Steve Levitt (one of the book's authors).


As a side note, I read a novel (actually just part of) by Frank Peretti called The Prophet and it showed a side of abortion that's so hideous that if you think about it there is just more damage that abortion can cause than what meets the eye or in this case, what meets the figures.

Second, why do drug dealers still live with their parents? According to “conventional knowledge” the drug dealers are making big money and they are riding the best cars and wearing the best suits. But the reality is, most of the drug dealers are still living with their parents. Why? Because like any organization the drug industry follows a system that will make those in the top of the pyramid prosper and will leave the rest in the mercy of the boss. Also, drug dealers do not know how to keep money so if they get more money they also tend to spend more. The pay is low and it’s one of the riskiest jobs on earth – the chance of being killed is high. So why do drug dealers stick in the drug industry?

#1 because of the benefit of the succession, if the drug dealer climbs up the ladder of success then he will be very wealthy.

#2 Perks. I forgot what they are but being in this industry has some perks so that keep them up.

Lastly, how the rules of incentives can either be going for you or against you? I learned so much about incentives in this book and I would like to share it. Sometimes, incentives will work for you or against you. The cardinal rule (I think) in giving incentives is that it should matter to the receiver. On other words, if you are rewarding somebody and your reward does not matter to that person then it’s better to not give it. Or if you are punishing somebody for an offense then the punishment should be heavy enough for the punishment to be appreciated. So as leaders, we need to be careful in giving incentives.

So what is the central them for this book? Answer – nothing.



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Sunday, February 08, 2009
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I was perusing over a popular networking site and my mind wandered and begun to muse over the friendships that I had in the past. The people that I've considered "friends" 4 or 5 years ago are no longer my friends today. Now they have their own lives as if the friendship that we shared did not matter anymore. A spasmodic sense of grief filled my heart and then I can't help but ask - why? This seem to be a farcical exercise of the mind but for the sake of discussion I would like to explore this.

[I don't feel writing anymore... maybe next time.]
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Thursday, February 05, 2009
Welcome to the land of Mohinder Suresh

Coming out of Calcutta Airport, I saw a band of people gathering around departure area, some of them are carrying cardboard with names of passengers on it. Some are written in English alphabet and some are in what I think are written in Indian texts. I looked around to find the person who is going to pick us up from the airport to the hotel. I tried reading some of the names in the cardboard (to find my name or names of my colleagues) and found the name Joseph Libreros (with and extra letter S) . So I went to the cardboard and told the nearest man, “This is me. That’s my name” The guy held-up a clipboard and asked us to come with them. We went out to the airport to the parking lot. On our way to the parking lot, I looked up and saw what looked like a yellow fog covering the night sky. In my mind I thought, “Oh my this is pollution.” We found the car that will take us to the airport. I made my way to the front right seat so my colleagues can take the back seats. When I opened the right front seat, the chauffer said something in Indian that I did not understand so I ignored him and opened the right door. When I looked at the seat I found the steering wheel on it was then when I realized Indian cars are right-hand driven. :) The vehicles in the Philippines are all left-hand driven so this is my first time to ride a right-hand driven car. (Note: I took the pictures below the day after we arrived so that's why it does not look like night time)


On our way to the hotel I found many Indian motorist are fond in using their car horns. Every time there is a little delay in the traffic, I hear them blowing their horns. I also noticed that some of the motorists are not following traffic rules. This is not new to me since in Cebu we have the same problem, jeepney stops and parks wherever they like so it did not bother me much. I asked the driver if the traffic is this bad and he answered with a smile, “It’s over 10 o’clock… rough-driving time.” It gave me the impression that the morning traffic will be much more in order. I noticed that the streets are still very crowded in that time of the night. I asked the chauffeur why and he said something like, “people are going to bars to have fun”. Now that I thought about it, I appreciate the chauffeur so much. He answers my question really kindly. He always ends his statements with the word “Sir”. Like “It’s past 10 o’clock sir and it’s rough-driving time.. sir”. I don’t know why but this makes me feel so special in a way. :)


The trip to the hotel was a bit long and so I looked around and try to see much of the city as I could. I saw the public train tracks, I also noticed that taxi’s are colored yellow but the thing that I really noticed about them is that they are not air-conditioned and the model looks very old. I have to say, this gave me some concerns since #1, I saw the yellow sky and #2 We are planning to take a cab to and fro the malls in the city.

We arrived in the hotel – ITC Sonar. It’s a beautiful place. The rooms are very spacious and the attendants are very accommodating. I went to the room and took a night rest. I was able to take a warm bath and took a very good nap.

I woke up around 6 o’clock in the morning. This sounded very early but in Cebu this is about 8.30AM which is for me not really early. It seems that my body clock is still in sync with Cebu. I called my colleagues (which I will remain un-named) for breakfast. As expected for a five star hotel, the breakfast is very great.

After breakfast, we decided to take a trip to a mall near by using a cab. When went inside a cab, the driver barely understands us but I understand that he told us, “his taxi meter is not working and he charges us 120 Rupees for the trip to the mall.” In our ignorance we agreed him to charge us that much later on we discovered that the cost is around 70-80 Ruppes.:) The taxi driver in the picture below charged us that much.:)


We went to the mall and found it to be a bit different from the mall that we had. I could not find McDonalds or KFC anywhere. I could not recognize a single food in the menu.

It’s then that I feel that I am really in another place far, far away from home –so different from where I came from. I realized that here I need to let go of all comforts and try to adjust as soon as I can. I have to admit this made me a little bit worried. But I have to survive; I have to live; I have to stay here for the next 3 weeks… in the land of Mohinder Suresh.


Note: Next post, I will talk about the cultural differences and cultural the sameness that I've observed in my brief time here in India. I will also talk about why the Philippines needs an Indian senator or adviser.
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Tuesday, February 03, 2009
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  • 12:40 PM
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The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced what you thought would deliver the ultimate, and it has let you down. - Ravi Zacharias

How many of us can relate to this? How many of us thought that such and such a thing will give us satisfaction and after getting it we ask ourselves, "is this all there is?" The thing that we thought will give us more happiness, more joy, more life.. failed us.

Many times I find myself asking for this question and it's always in time when I tried to find my happiness outside of God. I am not saying this because I want to sound religious, I'm saying this because it's the truth. And it does not take a genius to figure that out. All we have to do is to stop and ponder and ask, "what are those times that I was let down by what I though can make me happy?" If we find our being outside of God, may it be money, beauty, lust, love, religion, spirituality, health, career, relationships, or any other, we will never be filled; We will never be satisfied because all these things will not fill out the void that only God, the Creator of this universe and the Creator and Designer of man, can fill. Only God can fill the void.
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Monday, January 26, 2009
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This just jumped from my mind as I was chatting with Joyce and I know that this may sound like a re-phrase of somebody else's words but I guarantee you, I feel this is one of my originals:

We don't look into the past to dig and bury ourselves in history,
we look into the past and learn from it to propel ourselves to our destiny.
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Thursday, January 22, 2009
My IPOD hanged

WOW... i can't tell you how frustrated I am right now.
I just got my IPOD back from Joyce and guess what? It hanged.I'm sure it's not her fault. It's a design problem (I'm almost positive :-D). This is the second IPOD and the first one just turned up dead... I don't know why. Now this IPOD seemed to have a longer lifespan but... unexpectedly it just hanged. I cannot reset it.. I cannot do anything but wait till the battery drains. We are talking about 4-5 hours of waiting.

I'm reading this book titled, Do You Matter? by Robert Brunner Stewart Emery and they were talking about how Apple thought about the design of IPOD. How they thought about what would the customer feel when he/she opens the box and how they thought about the buttons and all those stuffs. And I thought," wow, now that's a company that really want to appear that they care for the customer". Now, I wonder if they thought about what would the customer feel when they have this very expensive gadget and it suddenly hangs without any way of fixing it other than draining the battery or going to the Apple Store? I tell you what, they don't have to worry because I'm gonna give them a feedback, "I feel so frustrated and so unsatisfied I just want to return this thing and get a smaller mp3 player that delivers the results". I googles the keywords "my ipod hanged" and guess what? There were a lot of people who also suffers from this same issue. Some just consider it normal for an IPOD. NORMAL? The customer is paying a lot for this and we call it normal? You know what really bugs me?
#1 I cannot return this gadget. Why? because I am in the Philippines and I think the policy is just replacement (as long as my warranty is still good)
#2 Even if they will replace my IPOD with a new one, the time I used in organizing and putting album covers to the song are priceless.
#3 What if my warranty expires and my IPOD will just drop dead? Apple Care anyone?

Recommendation:
1. Do not buy an Ipod. Settle with an mp3 player that does the job. I used to have Creative mp3 player and it's still functioning well after using it for 3 years. I bought an Ipod because of bigger space but it turns out to be a very bad choice.
2. Do not be a victim of the Apple Hype. I have three words for you - "It's just apple."
3. If you are tempted to buy an Ipod, try to settle for USB-type Ipods. I guess they are more durable.

I hope I have influenced some buying decisions. Have a nice day!

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Monday, January 19, 2009
caligynophobia


The word of the day is caligynophobia.:) I don't know if you heard of this word before but its a very interesting word because it means "fear of beautiful women". I believe I used to have minor case of this type of phobia because every time I get around beautiful women, I feel so uneasy and miserable confused. I feel like I need to do something but I don't know what it is. I feel rattled sometimes and most of the times I just can't talk.:)

I remembered the first time I courted a girl in high school, her name is Sheryl or Cheryl (I forgot) and I really find her beautiful and I every time I see her, my heart would pound like crazy and my palms would sweat like a faucet. So one time, we were in the library and I decided to declare my undying love to Sheryl and so I went up to her and said, "Hi". I want you to focus on those two-letter word- HI. Because that's the only sensible word I could remember telling her. My jaw locked and all I can say were gibberish words. Its as if a big fish got stucked in my throat. I cannot move my lips. I cannot open my mouth to form sensible words. I just froze in front of her. She was there looking at me probably astonished by the fact that I cannot even talk. Probably because of pity, she decided to kick things off by asking the questions. She asked me if I liked her to which I nodded. Then she asked me if I never had a girlfriend to which I nodded again. Then she asked me if it's the first time I courted a girl to which I nodded again.:) Then to end the boring courtship, she said, "My mom won't permit me to have a boyfriend. So... sorry." After hearing those words, I bolted out of the library with all her classmates wondering if I was mad. I was not mad, I was just confused on what to do. I could not talk and I could not negotiate. Fear just got my throat.:)

In college I had an opportunity to be seated with this seemingly sophisticated and beautiful lady, alias "Marko's girl". She probably is a fun to watch because I could not talk to her. I can only count in my two fingers the time when I spoke with her.:) And those are the times when she asked me if we had an assignment and if I have a partner for the mini-thesis to these questions I answered, "YES". The second answer was a lie.:) I did not have a partner I want her to be my partner but I cannot afford freezing in front of her while making the thesis.:) There were many instances when I froze (sometimes almost to death) when I am with a beautiful lady. It's probably the insecurity, the low self-esteem, or because of the way my family brought me up. I was told not to have a girlfriend until I graduate in high school so it probably suppressed my feelings somehow. Whatever the reason is, I can't really pin-point why I had those feelings. The important thing is, I got over it somehow.:)

How? It was when I had my first girlfriend. When she said it's OK to be her girl I feel a bit of confidence in myself. I realized that I am not really ugly and I really have something that is likeable to some women. I remembered that I realized how amazing it is to have a girlfriend. I feel so blissful to love and be love in return. My first girlfriend was an amazing lady she bear a lot of my flaws and hurts in the past. It was along those times that I feel better to be me and I feel that I can talk to anybody. I realized that I have some talent that others might be interested as well. I realized that if I can keep my girlfriend interested in our conversation for hours then I can at least be interesting to some people. I have put it to the test many many times and it was then that I realized that I do not fear beautiful women anymore. Much of the change that happened to me happened in the inside and then it changed some things on the outside like the way I present myself, the way I talk to people, the way I act, and the way to look at people. The change is inside-out and not outside-in.

If you have a case of caligynophobia, I suggest that you find your niche and trust yourself. You may have under-estimated yourself so look at your strength more than your weaknesses. Lastly, continue to improve yourself and the way you present yourself, it is said that you only have around 5 seconds to make an impression so when you meet a person make the best 5-second presentation of yourself. Again the change should be inside-out. You have to change your thoughts on who you are and not how you look. The how you look will follow from the who you are.
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Thursday, January 08, 2009
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I am big believer of not beating myself up. I believe that, by the end of the day the sure person who will be there for you is yourself. Yeah, of course there is God but He is a Spirit so allow me via these grounds to count Him out. In the end of the day, God can tap your heart but you're gonna have to make a choice to pick yourself up. So in these grounds I believe I should not beat myself up too much or be too hard on me.:) Hey I'm only one and if I can't defend myself from me then who else will?

Today, I felt a tinge of grief because of some actions that I did in the past that I knew is gonna hurt me in the future. Now I am in constant (nearly constant) pain because of it. I tried blaming myself but then I don't want to blame myself too much. I also tried thinking and re-thinking and in the end I am still in pain. The natural tendency of man is to move from pain to pleasure. So now, I'm thinking of what type of pleasure I want to go to. I have thought about it and I found that I really don't know what type of pleasure and I probably just wait this out and allow time to mend what I did. I have not prayed as well for many weeks now and I guess this also added to the burden that I felt in my heart. Bottom-line is, I am going to wait this out, bury myself in work and dreams, try to stay as normal as possible and wait for the type A, energetic, melancholic, focused, enthusiastic, and positive me to take shape in the whole process. I have to admit I never thought I'll be back to be this emotional. This primal emotion has plagued my high school and college years and somehow it subsided when Joyce became my girlfriend. Now it's a bit back and I am fighting this off. So with this let me quote Gandalf in Lord of the Ring: Fellowship of the Ring, as I he stood against humongous fiery demon called Balrog, "You shall not pass!!!!"
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