Davao Bloggers Eyeball at PAGCOR

Last night, we were in the Pantawan Hall of The Grand Regal Hotel in Lanang, still here in Davao City. We were invited for a bloggers' fellowship night by the DigitalFilipinoClub particularly Janette Toral. The event was sponsored by Philippine Gaming Amusement Corporation (PAGCOR), a government corporation.

It was a great night. We learned some new things, met old (Rex, Bloggie) and new faces (Honey, Myrell among others). The food was great. It was not only great but it's free! Beer is free also! Not only that, there was a band and they have great music!

There was a free poker game which I didn't join because I don't know how to play poker in the first place. I have not played in the Casino every since! Hehehe. PAGCOR, the event sponsor also gave out 500 pesos worth of play card to eight lucky winners.

Thank you to Janette Toral for inviting us and to PAGCOR for sponsoring such a wonderful event.

Excited to be in Antipolo!

November 3. I will be in Manila then to Antipolo City for a prestigious training on FOSS for SMEs CD Toolkit Training of Trainers. This will be held in The Mango Farm Antipolo and participated by 20 participants from Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines.

The training is organized by International Open Source Network (IOSN) ASEAN+3 and supported by inWent Capacity Building International, Germany. Wow! This will be an exciting event as I will not only be learning new things but will also be meeting people from neighboring countries.

Will keep you posted.

Adventure in Seagull Mountain Resort

October 5, 2008. We had an escapade. We explored the beautiful Seagull Mountain Resort in Buda (along Davao-Bukidnon Road). Such a beautiful place!

It was a very exciting trip. We got there thru an elf (a light truck) passing the fantastic view of mountains and trees. The view kept us busy taking pictures while the elf is running. Eating cooked bananas while being amazed of the beautiful scenery.

As soon as we arrived the place, we immediately proceeded to the waterfalls. We had our breakfast there (bread filled with pansit canton that we ordered from Dencia's). We were so fascinated with the waterfalls and the very cold pool water. It's like swimming in a pool full of ice. Because of fascination, some of my friends who don't know how to swim and were afraid of swimming, conquered their fear. They grab their life jacket and enjoyed the pool!

We were fortunate also to have met Press Secretary Jesus Dureza who went there at that time with some friends. We had an opportunity to take pictures with him having the waterfalls as background.

When we got back to Davao, we had a massage at the Blinds Therapeutic Massage in Matina.

Indeed, a great day!

If you want to know more about the place, visit http://www.davaoseagullresorts.com

Peoples' Park

This afternoon, we went to Peoples' Park, the place were the old PTA ground was located. It's in front Casino Filipino in Apo View Hotel and also in front of Casa Letecia and the new Whaw Lechon Biik branch.

The site is very beautiful and huge crowd was there this afternoon. Maybe because it's a Sunday, a family day and payday. :) Trees are around the place and nicely paved with paving blocks. The children's playground is also kids' favorite place.

It's a great place and probably one of the places where Kadayawan will be celebrated also.

Try to visit there. It's also near the old JS Gaisano which is now Gaisano South.

4 Things Rich People Do

There are four ways that will certainly allow someone to reach their goal of becoming rich. First remember, whatever vehicle you choose to reach your goal there is always plenty for everyone. Second the old cliché is true, if your mind can conceive it, you can achieve it. Third you must have faith and that faith must be coupled with action. Last but not least, be ready for success. Speak as though you already have what you are seeking.

Rich people become rich by choosing a vehicle they can use. This vehicle is usually based on a certain talent that they posses, love to do and they can market. Two examples can be calligraphy or internet marketing. It is common to think...well, why should I start this endeavor, I'm sure there are many out there doing the same thing. The problem with this type of thinking is you may be the one person to take this talent into new heights. It is true that some ventures may have more competition that some others. However, no one can do it like you do.

Rich people make the old adage real "If the mind can conceive it can achieve. Any idea can be developed to the point where it produces some kind of income. The world is full of those examples such as: The Handy Man, and Web MD, The Eifel tower, the Empire State Building, and the pyramids of Egypt. If your idea of success is becoming rich, "firing your boss, or simply making some extra money, you must believe it can and will be done.

Riches come to those who have strong faith. The Good Book reads faith without works is dead. It is one thing to have conceived an idea. It is quite another to bring it to fruition. Each good idea that was carried to completion was done with faith. That faith was coupled with the work that had to be done and viola! One must also note, no work that requires faith was ever met without some type of resistance. Let's take Thomas Edison as an example. He had a vision, applied some faith added some work with the faith (ten thousand tries worth of faith) and he reached his goal did he not?

Nature seems to work in the sense that it doesn't allow success to reach us very easily. However, if we apply a dash of faith, a spoonful of tenacity and cup of work, success becomes something that we cannot avoid, whatever the endeavor.

Those who are successful have the common denominator of substituting the word if with when and they speak as though those goals have already been met. Instead of saying if I finish school or if I make a million dollars; they instead say when I finish school and when I make a million dollars. Words plant a powerful impression on your mind. The words you speak will determine whether or not you reach your goals. Choose your words wisely.

Rich people become rich because they have a plan. Know what you're going to do when the money starts to roll in. Write these goals down. Either you are going to pay this bill or that. Start that education fund for the kids, or pay off the house. Whatever it is, a goal is a dream if it is not written down.

Finally take action! If becoming your own boss or making supplemental income is your goal, click the following link and start working on your own home business now.

Apply the above advice and you will find success cannot be avoided. The Profit Lance system has taken the bugs out of starting a successful internet venture. All you have to do is follow instruction.

Walki Arisme is a Registered Nurse looking to answer the age old statement, there must be a better way. There must be a better way to bring in some income without jeopardizing family time.

Visit the following website for details.

successwithprofitlance.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Walki_Arisme

Beautiful Bohol Chocolate Hills

Bohol is a marvelous place, the Chocolate Hills are just so amazing! Luboc River is a great view and tarsier can only be found in Bohol. There's Sagbayan Peak where you can get good view of the Hills. It is also in Bohol where the historic Blood Compact happened just in the barangay of Cesar Montano, the Philippine actor.

There are also hotels that are overlooking the City and the beaches are as wonderful as the people in Bohol.

It's a great place to hold vacations!








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Comparing PC-based DVR versus an appliance-type DVR

There are many things to consider when buying Digital Video Recorders (DVR). But a lot of times we asked which DVR is better? Here is a comparison:

* As to price, there’s no significant difference. Appliance-type maybe lower depending on compression. MPEG-4 is a lot cheaper compared to H.264 compression. We can discuss compression types further next time.

* Speed is dependent to PC-specs if DVR is PC-based.

* Maintenance is costly for PC-based DVR. Prone to viruses and other attacks. Should not be used by any other applications to eliminate freezing.

* Security. Not so secured if PC-based especially if admin is not security conscious.

* PC-based will occupy more space than appliance-type DVR.

* Troubleshooting. For PC-based, there is a lot of things to check. OS, other applications installed, etc. For appliance-type, you have single point of checking – Hardware.

Unconditional training key to employee retention?

Accenture released a statement which I read from Inquirer that unconditional training is a key to employee retention. In my opinion, it's just one of the many keys of employee retention. Some other keys are compensation and benefits, relationship with other employees in the workplace, environment and of course employee attitude. Key employees should be compensated well to address their financial needs. They should also feel that they "belong" in the organization. Also a lot of motivating.

Hair Relaxed in the heart of Agdao Public Market

The other day, I had my hair relaxed at Shirley's Parlor in Agdao. The parlor is inside the crowded public market of Agdao, Davao City. If you are from Boulevard Street, there's a jeepney going to Agdao which passes the public market area. If you are from Gaisano mall, there are also jeepneys going to Agdao public market. You also have the option to get a cab.

It has been months that I wanted my hair relaxed but was not always successful because good salons are always full. So when my officemate Chona Dacillo informed me that there is a good but not so expensive salon in Agdao, I immediately went there after getting out of office. So far, it has been two days that my hair looks great and neat.

What makes it even great was I was accompanied by my husband. Being able to eat kwek-kwek (an egg with cucumber, vinegar, salt and some seaweed) sold in the streets of Agdao.

Toyuzo Hot Spring in Nabunturan Compostela Valley

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to go out with some new friends to Mainit Hot Spring and Resort in Nabunturan Compostela Valley Province. It is 2 hours and 30 minutes from Davao City if you have a private car and around 3 hours if you travel by bus and jeepney. Bus from Davao City going to Nabunturan proper is about 2 hours and 20 minutes and from Nabunturan proper to Barangay Bukal where the hotspring is located is about 40 minutes. By the way, the name of the resort is Toyuzo (some call it Tuyuzo) Hot Spring and Resort.

My companions spent the night there. The cottage is very affordable. For 10 persons, the fee is only 1,500 pesos for overnight stay. There are cottages for day trip also and it's much cheaper. If my memory is right, it's less than 500 pesos. The place is good for relaxation since you can take a natural sauna in a cave, go swimming in a not-so-hot pool from the hot spring. The place is surrounded by small volcanoes which are the source of hot spring water.

Since the time I have visited there in 1999 with my officemates from a mall, the place has improved. There are more cottages now and more people going there also. I have observed that most people are not from Nabunturan but from other neighboring places like Davao City and Tagum City. I even saw foreigners (Japanese, Americans).

We were able to bring food (lechon for lunch) and light drinks. I mean Sir Frank, a manager from San Pedro College Finance department brought the food for all of us. Wow, more blessings to you sir. Anyway, there are also available food inside and outside of Toyuzo. You can have grilled fish and some barbeques. We brought 3/4 kilo of fish for our friend Jojie who can't eat pork.

What a great weekend escapade! Thanks guys!
You may contact Toyuzo with this telephone number 084-3761151.

Getting a Nissan Sentra Car

I am just so excited to get my car. It's a nissan sentra 2001 model and evidently, it is my first time to have a car! Wow. The feeling is great though I am a little afraid to start using it as I have to refresh my driving skills yet. I am planning to enroll at Tec Driving School along Matina Balusong or at La Rioja Driving School, also here in Davao.

I will be getting the car from Karfinder in Matina Davao City. They have a wide array of cars that you can choose from and they don't price high (well, that is as far as I know).

Eden Nature Park Encounter

I was in Eden Nature Park in the highlands of Toril last week for a Strat Planning with the other members of my company's team. As usual, Eden is really a wonderful adventure place. A place to relax while having a meeting. We stayed in Log Cabin where four rooms are just enough for us. We were like sisters in one house helping each other in preparing our dinner and of course chit-chatting while watching Wheel of Fortune hosted by Kris Aquino. It was fun.

Eden is known also as a place for long meetings. Chito Prat was there. He is a classmate of mine in Knowledge Management in Marco Polo Davao last 2005. He is active in the activities of Davao City Chamber of Commerce. He owns a flower farm also in Puan and he is supplying flowers in Marco Polo I guess. I remembered I ask him of some flowers for my new haus in Puan. Remembering his flower farm, I have now thought of partnering with my friend Lewilyn who is good in flower arrangement where we can serve customers needing flowers on occassions like weddings in the city of Davao.

So, let me know if you have a flower arrangement / supply requirements guys. Let me know also if you need help in your Eden Adventure, I might be able to help.

Consumer Complaints and DTI webpage

I have been browsing the webpage of the Department of Trade and Industry (www.dti.gov.ph) to look for a link where I can post my concerns on certain products like the Bayantel Wireless Landline (Dial up issue which I posted days ago). I can't find it in the DTI webpage. Isn't it supposed to be there? Where should I lodge my complaints?

Today will be a great day!

I woke up late today as felt so lazy going to work. When the clock strike at 7am, I immediately took a bath and ate breakfast. I did it in just 10 minutes! I even managed to prepare my daughter's breakfast.

This day will be a great day. I have a new signed up today in my AMWAY business. And it's the month-end of Amway. I hope to reach 3% today.

Have a great day everyone.

ASUS EEEC LAPTOP

My sister in law got an ASUS laptop from Taiwan. I like the weight, it's very light. It looks very robust and with the 512MB RAM, applications such as OpenOffice run fast. She like the Operating System very much which is Xandros Linux. Except that, the characters are in Chinese or Taiwanese. I don't even know what language is used. So, I thought of installing a new OS particularly Windows XP or Ubuntu. But I was not able to do it last night because the laptop does not have a CD drive.

On my way to office, I was contemplating on what to do. When I got in the office this morning, I thought of searching Google for possible help. And there's really a way to tweak the language to English. Here is how I did it.

I pressed CTRL ALT T and type this code in the console /opt/xandros/bin/locale_dialog. A new window popped-up and I chose the first button. The system auto restart and it now display characters in English. Wow!

You can get Rich by David King

I bought a book last night entitled YOU CAN GET RICH, written by David King. I read a few pages and I really like the book already! I will be reading it tonight again and see what I can get. Few points I learned from the book:

1. READ and SAVE
2. PERSEVERANCE IS A MUST TO SUCCEED
3. DISCIPLINE IS A MUST TO SUCCEED

Will post some of my learnings anytime today.

Car Plan

My boss offered a car plan for me that is payable for 4 years. A certain amout per month. Probably a KIA Avella car. Wow. Sounds great. But I have to think twice though given that I have other payables to take care of.

Bayantel Wireless Landline Weak Signal

It has been weeks already that I experienced a poor signal of Bayantel Wireless Landline. Everytime I call the house where my Bayantel Wireless unit is, it's either they can't hear me at all or they can't understand me because it's choppy. When will this service improved? Sun Cellular signal is far better.

My sweet and loving daughter

It was the first time that I went to my daughter's school to get her report card. First time because it was my husband who always have the time to do it. And it was the first time that I cried in front of my daughter's very nice teacher Karen. I cried for several reasons.

First, my daughter excels in school and that is something that a parent is proud of. It was tears of joy. Second, I cried because despite my being busy and not having ample quality time with her, she did great in school. I want to slap myself in the face for not giving her the time that she deserves. For not being with her during school activities. It was always the "yaya" that accompanies her in the important events of my daughter's life. It was tears of both anger and self-pity. Third, the teacher said that my daughter is a very nice and sweet child. At home, she always get a spank for not listening to me, for being hard-headed. The teacher said it might be sibling rivalry. I cried because I realized that I'm not acting the right way I should towards my daughter. I cried even harder because I love her and I know that I am wrong. She needs me in every moment of her life. She needs my understanding. She needs my love. She needs my attention.

I said to myself, from this day onwards, I will be with her in the important moments of her life. I will be more patient with her. Be more loving. After all, they are the source of my joy and energy and I know that someday, my daughter will be proud of me for being such a great mom!

Davao - a colorful City

The day is so bright. I feel great with the beautiful landscape of Toscana Subdivision. The feeling is amazing when you first see beautiful people and beautiful place. Everything just looks so beautiful. As I was in the jeepney, sitting and silently observing, it was the first time that I was able to notice the color yellow in every establishment that we passed by.

Such a great day. Davao City is clean and so beautiful. The city is indeed so colorful.

Bayantel Wireless and Dial-Up Internet

It is Sunday morning and the place is a bit cold. It was raining last night. It was last night also that I got disappointed with the service I got from Bayantel. I'll tell you why.

I brought my laptop home because I was planning to connect to the internet thru dial-up. I don't have a DSL at home so dial-up is the alternative. It will appear to be cheaper when compared to the per minute rate of Bayantel. (Note: My cellphone (SMART) internet rate is even cheaper compared to Bayantel's).

I tried to used the program ZTEConnector which is automatically installed after you install the driver from Bayantel. I supplied the username and the password and tried to connect. The message was, "the remote computer did not respond". I pick up the telephone receiver and dialed the number directly from my telephone. To my surprise, the remote modem responded. I tried connecting again. This time, I used my laptop. Still, I can't connect.

I decided to call 171, the helpdesk of Bayantel wireless. I was able to talk to a lady who's name is Marie. I asked her why I can't connect. She told me that I have to have my internet service activated before I can make any internet connection. I told her, I will only be connecting to a local number and not with Bayantel internet. I explained what I wanted to do. I only want to dial to a local number using my laptop. She got the same answer, I've got to have my internet activated. So I ask her, "does this mean the internet connection is exclusive to Bayantel only?". She answered "YES".

I still don't want to believe it because when I purchased this unit, I was told that this unit can act as a USB modem as being reflected in their manual. So, if this is a USB modem, I should be able to use this to connect to a remote computer which uses a local number only. I was told to dial 181, their technical call center. But.. you won't believe this. THEY'VE GOT THE SAME ANSWER! BAYANTEL'S SUPPOSED TO BE USB MODEM IS EXCLUSIVE TO THEM! How unfair! I asked, does DTI know this? Did you get the same complain from other people? Or, am I just the only one complaining on this?

Here's another suprising thing. 181 forwarded me back to 171. A lady told me that they can't activate my internet because I still have a bill to pay that's 1,700+ just for this month. I said, "WHAT"? How come? And I was told I've called cellphone numbers from my Bayantel unit. I said, "WHAT" (again)? I realized my helpers could have used my unit to call their text mates! (But this is a different story. So homeowners, guard your phones!).

Anyway, I was exhausted having talked to Bayantel help line. After all, they were not able to solve my problem. I was just so desperate I told them I am going to report this to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). But will DTI act on this? Will our right to be able to choose providers be safeguarded? Or, am I talking the right thing here?

Should I just report this to the councilors of Davao? I was thinking I'm going to report this to Councilor Peter Laviña who is known to be a fighter for people's rights. Or, am I just out of sync here?

Please let me know your opinion beecause if this is not worth discussing for, I will have my mouth shut.

Information Technology - To where I currently belong

Some issues IT departments are facing are:
- Customer thinks IT always force changes on them
- Unclear as to why the changes are necessary
- IT keeps clients in the dark..No info of what happened
- when IT fixes something, they usually break something else
- poor follow-up skills (don't always deliver what we commit to do)
- poor client expectation management skills

What makes IT reliable and predictable?
1. Be responsive and follow up very well. listen objectively; don't try to rationalize
2. IT goals should be in line with the business goals. focus on business, not technology
3. Deliver projects successfully
4. Communicate very well what we are doing & why it is necessary, what IT is getting accomplished and render pro-active status updates

Why should we do this?
Well, for our budgets to be easily approved!

Blogging & Google

It was June 29, 2007 when I first learned about Blogging. I learned it from Google's page itself but heard it through Ailleen Apolo, Google's representative in the Philippines. Today, bloggers in the Philippines are everywhere. They have found a way to express themselves online. Most of all, you get paid because of your articles. If you don't have a blogging page yet, start making one now!

2007 Christmas Party @ Waterfront Insular Hotel

Our Christmas Party was held at the Waterfront Insular Hotel in Lanang Davao City last December 22. We enjoyed it very much. The place was great. The ambiance was dominated by pirate-wearing participants and the well-decorated pirate-inspired venue. Thanks to the bosses also for the so many treasures that had been raffled off. From entertainment showcases, Aigo cameras, refrigerators, TV sets, electrifan, magic sing, and a lot more.

The dance competition also was very overwhelming. It was the first time that Decoarts won over Citihardware Matina and Bajada.

More parties to come please! Hehehe.