Suspend-It

On a rainy, almost stormy afternoon, while having lunch with my friend and office mate Wendi at this nice Tempura restaurant, we got into talking about the big flood that damaged several villages last September which buried a lot of houses under water. It turns out that her grandparents’ house was one of those that were affected.

Wendi shared that no one was hurt and most of the damages in their house have now been repaired. The only problem was the fact that all the documents, textbooks, and even their highly valued pictures plus the negatives are now beyond restoration. I guess nowadays, having a digital camera can be handy in preserving those “Kodak moments”.

I remember my friend Mark who doesn’t like taking pictures on the context that he treasures everything with his memory. I agree with him. However, it’s still nice to have mementos to share to your friends, children and grand children someday, don’t you think?

With my nine-days vacation, I planned on using some of those days to go on a 3-day trip with my new friend Diego and his friends. Diego was the one who organized this trip which includes two nights in a Beach Resort, island hopping, two days of snorkeling, a boat ride for firefly watching, and whale interaction. ^_^

I’m pretty excited for the trip. My only problem right now is that the phone signal in that area is very low. Consequently, I might need to purchase a cell phone booster to make sure I’m able to still contact people in case of an emergency. Oh well, that’s just a minor problem which can be set aside. After all, compared to the sublime scenery and experience, worrying something like the phone signal seems pretty lame.

I can’t wait to see those fireflies and whales!

Beauty is everything. That’s what everything and everyone around us thinks. Even television commercials show it.

With a society as obsessed with vanity as ours, aging is one of the biggest factors we want to avoid.

Thus the anti aging supplements came into existence. There are a lot of benefits and disadvantages to this, and that’s what this kind of society brings to us.

All I know is, I don’t want to be like the rest of the mummies who follow all this society’s norms. It’s just not healthy.

I was sitting by the electric fireplace after an intense yoga session last week when Junnie came over to hang out with me. I made some hot cocoa and toasted wheat bread cause I was getting hungry. Then I went back to the couch where I was lounging. Junnie was my friend of 8 years. I’ve only seen her single during the first 2 years so I kinda identified her as 2 people always, Junnie and Kristian. They have been like the power couple in our circle.

Kristian was a yogi, spending 4 hours every day in intense meditation and jogs in the evening. He can afford to do this, well basically he owns his time because he has his own businesses. Junnine on the other hand loves to row for dragon boat in the mornings with my sister and swims right after. Both have strong businesses and are infact earning big bucks. By the looks of it, the only thing missing is them getting married.
Now that’s the main reason why Junnie was hanging out at home, she was getting worried. She’s not getting any younger. She wants to start a family and also make their relationship legal. She loves him and all but she has to be smart. They are not married and has no legal right to anything that they built together.

What she didn’t know was, Kristian has been planning their wedding all along. He was fixing everything for Junnie that the moment she says YES, they will be wed.

Two days ago, it finally happened, what a supposed lunch date became their wedding day. The moment he proposed to her and said yes, the big curtain opened and revealed the wedding guests and the garden set up. She was finally getting married.
It was definitely one of a kind and very interesting, imagine having a surprise wedding. Congratulations Kristian and Junnie!

My company produces a quarterly newsletter. We were supposed to send out the newsletter to clients before the year ends last December, but had some problems with the printing team – they were out of Anilox roll cleaner. Since it’s almost the holidays at that time, we decided to just send it to the clients through email blast in PDF format.

Frankly, newsletter printing is a waste especially since the numbers of trees nowadays are diminishing. If there’s something you can do paperless, then why bother with the hard copy right? After all, sooner or later, majority of those printed papers will end up being thrown away anyway; very few of them will end up recycled.

I am not really an avid environment-friendly supporter, but I do promote and go for eco-friendly alternatives whenever there are options. This is exactly what I did when I helped my brother and his girlfriend pick out a sofa for their room.

Though there are lots of stylish modern sofas available in the market, durable eco-friendly sofas that are stylish are definitely a rare encounter. Which is why, my brother, his girlfriend, and I, immediately fell in love with the Timucuan Sofa. What made it green? It used sustainably harvested hardwoods, soy-based cushions and recycled steel springs and covered in microfiber that is Oeko-Tex 100 certified. Cool, right? ^_^

It is true that many environmentally friendly options are still a bit higher in price and scarcity. Then again, knowing that, “Some statistics say that more than 90 percent of all furniture manufactured is made with materials known to cause global warming, respiratory problems, breast cancer and leukemia over extended periods of time.” will definitely make you lean towards eco-friendly sofas.

During a lunch buffet gathering of my department in celebration of the September birthday celebrants last September 25, I overheard one of them say, “Let’s go Green shopping!”

I was at a loss. Green shopping?! Huh?

Thanks to Google, I soon found that “Green shopping” actually refers to “shopping online”. The phrase originated from the result of the study conducted by the Green Design Institute of Carnegie Mellon University.

As you know, individual consumers generally drive by or commute via car from their homes to the nearest retail store to pick up the product and then return home. The Institute made a test wherein they discovered that you can decrease your impact on the environment by shopping online. In fact, “shopping online consumes less energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 35 percent compared to shopping at traditional retail stores.” A good example of this is Buy.com wherein, “Buy.com’s model fared better in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption with fewer steps in getting products from manufacturers’ warehouses to consumers’ homes.”

Amazing isn’t it? So next time you need to buy something, I suggest you opt for Green shopping!

I’m one of those people who adore scenic places, especially those with fountains, ponds, and water fall effect. Whenever I encounter one of those, I wonder how much it costs to maintain those installations, what’s involved, etc.

Then just yesterday I saw people installing some sort of unusual machinery in what would soon become a pond in front of our mall. Curious, I approached the one who seems to be in charge and inquired about the thingamabob that they are setting up. It turns out to be one of the latest pond aerators in the country.

My curiosity now more piqued, I asked what those machines really do for ponds, and how it actually helps maintain it. He enthusiastically explained that, “Proper pond aeration is a critical component of maintaining a healthy and clean pond or lake. This is because the oxygenation and water circulation benefits of a pond aerator allow for faster decomposition of waste, reduction of algae growth, necessary oxygen and gas transfer, cleaner water, and stimulation of beneficial pond bacteria.”

Amazing, isn’t it?