Suspend-It

I have been seriously considering remodeling my room since I don’t exactly have space for my bookshelf. My friends lately have been giving me all of the books I’ve been saving up for and they’re slowly piling up. I can’t just leave them sitting on the floor on piles that don’t even look that aesthetically pleasing anymore, it doesn’t give them much justice!

I started looking up log bedroom furniture so I could start saving up for specifics and get ideas if I wanted to have anything custom made. So far my top priority would be a shelf for all of my beautiful books, but I haven’t really come up with a design yet since none of my books have the same size.

Do you guys have any shelf designs to recommend? Link away, so I can get ideas! I’ll post rough drafts of them in this blog soon if you guys come up with anything and I get ideas from it. Thanks a lot in advance!

One of the main reasons why I like going to the beach is because I like getting a nice, healthy tan. It just gives you this irresistibly, gorgeous glow that literally makes people do a double take (to the point of gawking).

Unfortunately, with the ozone layer’s continuous depletion, exposure to the sun, if not done properly, can be very harmful – even with a high end sun block. Not only that, while undoubtedly the sun provides us many valuable benefits, too much tanning can cause premature aging of the skin, may cause freckles and sunspots, more wrinkles, and worse, may even contribute to skin cancer. In fact, according to a study, more than 90% of all skin cancers result from too much exposure to UV radiation in the sun.

That’s why I’m very thankful for airbrush tans. With the invention of those, not only do you prevent yourself from the side effects of sun bathing, you also no longer need to go through the hassle of lying down under the sun like a barbecue being turned at a particular time (which can be time consuming btw) and you will no longer experience the occasional skin peeling when you’re skin goes back to its natural color. Plus, you still get that gorgeous tanned glow.

Our company recently became a part of an advocacy program to conserve energy. Inline with this, our team was designated to replace at least half of our office CF bulbs to LED lighting. Of course the first task is to procure LED bulbs which could substitute the CF bulbs. I never thought that this task would be this hard. Here’s why:

First, LED bulbs are expensive on retail. Because of the “green” hype, retailers tagged these bulbs as “eco-friendly” thus raising the prices. Second, they have only a white color. ‘Only’ I meant that they do not have the warm white color that CF bulbs have. This means I cannot replace the CF bulbs in our cafe otherwise the interior designer will kill me.

So far these were my challenges for now. However just this morning, one of my teammates was able to communicate directly to a manufacturer in China. This will significantly reduce the price of the bulbs, provided we buy wholesale of course. My plan is to buy wholesale and sell the bulbs that will not be used in the office. How? Involve the employees. By making them buy some for their homes, they get to help the company plus help the environment as well. Now if I could only find a warm-white LED bulb…

Software piracy nowadays is as easy as it can get. With the onset of cd duplication, any software can be copied in just a matter of minutes. This is the current issue in our company right now. Two of our anchor products have been hacked and the boss is quite disappointed. Our products are top of the line marketing software which are the bread and butter of the company. However, because of piracy issues, we can no longer rely on them as our primary source of income.

We had a meeting earlier to discuss the issue. For the first time, our boss asked our opinion regarding this and we gladly came up with suggestions. One of our marketing assistants suggested that we sell the service rather than the software. By making the software online, it will be less prone to hackers because it will be hosted in our servers alone. Also, it will be more accessible to many companies because they only need to register online. No need to configure their systems.

It was a suggestion my boss liked. Even the IT agreed that it was a good alternative. Hopefully they can implement this soon as I believe this will open a lot more opportunities for our company and for us employees as well.

On my way to work, I saw an ad about money-saving features and 5th wheel insurance discounts. The “insurance” there reminded me to coordinate with our HR so I can get my youngest sister a health insurance via my company.

You see, my little sister is currently staying in an apartment which is just walking distance from her building in the University, but is two hours away from our house. Although being away from us is a wonderful training for her to become independent, it is very important that we’ve got the basics covered for our peace of mind. Thus, we first checked if her apartment is safe and secure [check]; lent her my ATM where we could send money to in case of emergency [check]; and avail of a health card for her in so in case something happens, or if she gets sick while she’s there [pending], we know she’ll be in good hands.

Some people may say that having a health card is not necessary and is just an added expense. Maybe so… But from my experience, I learned that even though you may not be able to purchase “peace of mind” 100%, anything that can be bought to achieve that certain sense of security is definitely worth it! What about you? What do you think about health cards?

Excusitis. I am not really sure if this is just a coined term or not but hey it makes sense. It was described in the book “The Magic of Thinking Big” as an disease of having excuses for doing anything successful. Among the common excuses explained in the book is “I am too old” or “too young” , “I am too weak to”, “I am not that lucky”. Excusitis makes one think of excuses rather than means to be successful.
There are different approaches to cure this disease but the cure targets the way people think. If you think failure, you will end up only creating more excuses. This in turn just gives you more failures. Thinking success, however, makes you strive to find ways to achieve success.

I am one of the people who have a moderate case of excusitis. My favorite excuse is “I am too weak” or “I have a health condition”. As it turns out, three out of five beds in a US hospital is occupied by a patient with emotionally induced illness. Perhaps I am one of those. Whenever I have an opportunity, let us say, to have a business, I always pass it up and just make the said excuses.

Negative thinking is really the cause for failures. It is addictive however there is no santa barbara drug alcohol rehab treatment center for this kind of addiction. Only you can cure yourself by changing your way of thinking.  Thinking success or thinking positive is the only cure. It is not easy but it is doable.

My cousin has recently passed the medical board exam. She’s now a doctor, acting as a substitute for doctors on their leave on various hospitals.

She has been intending to start her own clinic, but she doesn’t have the capital yet. She’s lately been so uninspired and unmotivated to do anything, so I want to help her out in my own little ways.

I plan on buying one of the medical carts at Howard-Medical.com. Hopefully when she sees it she’ll remember why she wanted to start her own clinic and start being motivated again.

When you see a friend who’s starting to lose hope, it’s our job to cheer them up and get them back on track. Don’t ignore them, and remember to help in your own little ways! No man is an island, after all. Don’t you agree?

Uh oh, February is just around the corner, and you know what that means! Valentine’s Day is about to come around, and well, Desperation Day is there for single men and women like myself. Haha! (If you must know, Desperation day is on the 13th of February, and if you want to know why, well… Google is your friend!)

If you are one of those lucky ladies who were able to find their true love and are still with the man, I suggest you to send your boyfriend this valentine or at least start looking for gifts. You wouldn’t want your man to feel like he’s not appreciated, would you? Don’t give him a gift that’s half-assed (pardon the french). If you have found your true love, I suggest you never let go, so you wouldn’t be drowning in regret later on.

Enjoy the little things, because they are the things that will keep you sane. Live your life with no regrets, take risks and learn from your mistakes!

For a month now, it has been a debate among us sisters whether to let Mom have a business of her own. Mom is already retired. At age 60, she is financially stable from my Dad’s insurance plus she gets her children’s support too. All of us sisters have very good businesses and careers already so in terms of financial reasons, an additional business is just plain greedy.

My sisters preferred that Mom just relax, enjoy her life and just do whatever she wants. They do not want Mom to get stressed with some business that her friends just suggested. In my point of view however, having a business gives a sense of challenge and fulfillment. Yes, I agree that businesses can be stressful but then again it could also be fun. Imagine being 60 and doing nothing. It is just letting your life pass by for nothing right?

Anyhow, good thing my sisters considered my opinion and they finally agreed to support Mom on her business. By the way, my Mom decided to set up an internet cafe. Since I am the IT professional in the family, I will take care of helping mom purchase cheap desktop computers for her cafe. My sisters, as always, are the capitalists, because they are already filthy rich and their husbands do not really care about spending money that much.

I’m currently torn between my need to buy ps3 games or graphic novels and books. I know people would consider this first world problems, but I have been seriously wanting to buy the God of War PS3 remake for their PSP games! It’s just brilliant, really, I’ve always had this weird fascination for mythologies, and this game just feels like it was made for me.

The main reason why I bought a PS3 was to play that game in the first place. It’s just amazing. Imagine how disheartened I was that the third game in their franchise was exclusive for the PS3. I was hoping that they’d release it for the PSP, too, since I don’t really want to spend money on buying consoles, I just borrow my friend’s PSP and play there.

Thank god my eyesight hasn’t suffered yet, I have been in front of computer and television screens ever since I could remember.