Ever watched TV or listened to the radio and heard Milo’s tagline that said, “Great things start from small beginnings“? I think that and Globe’s “Greatness starts at home” taglines work well together especially when one speaks of family and parents. Greatness starts at home with loving parents and great things start from children raised in loving homes.

After I finished highschool, I had my life all planned out. I told myself I’ll finish college within 3 or 4 years, get a career, help my parents and siblings, start my own business, buy my own home and then when I’m old enough, I’ll retire. Unfortunately, life seldom goes according to plan and it has a habit of throwing tons of obstacles, crossroads and dead ends in your path. I must’ve won the “throw it all to me” lottery because it did just that and I honestly don’t know if I’d still be here typing this out right now if didn’t have my parents and my faith while I was slowly crawling on that difficult and lonely path.

I mentally, emotionally and physically struggled a lot to finish my bachelor’s degree. In fact it took me 7 years before I finally earned my diploma for a bachelor’s degree that is supposed to only take 3 years and one term (if you’re on a university that runs on a trimester system). I don’t talk about it often because it’s still a sore subject for me but I’ve slowly learned to stop being ashamed of it and to look past the amount of years it took me to finally get there. My parents never doubted me and they kept on supporting and cheering me on until I finally got my hands on my diploma.

Although money was tight and difficult at that time, my parents and my aunt abroad, always found a way to pay for my tuition, books and allowances so money wasn’t really the problem. Out of nowhere, things just snapped and everything became very difficult that I had to take my first leave of absence or LOA as we called it. After my first LOA, I thought everything was back to normal and it was for quite a while but it seems life wasn’t done yet testing me. I was able to finish with thesis work and I was really psyched because I was near my last few terms when things got out of hand again. It was so stressful that my head would hurt so bad and my eyeballs felt like they were going to pop out from the pain. It was very difficult to deal with and at times I couldn’t stop myself from banging my head on the wall because it hurt like hell. I wanted to die.

We visited a neurologist and he determined that it was cluster headaches. I was given prescription drugs to help alleviate the headaches and although it did work to relieve the pain, it never really stopped it from happening again and this headache had a nasty habit of attacking me out of nowhere. Going to school scared me because it attacks without any notice and I can’t just get my parents to pick me up from school since they lived in the province and my school was in Manila. Since things were getting worse, I started going on regular visits to my neurologist and medications and dosages were either increased or changed each time the other stops working. Finally after a few months of doctor’s appointments, I was advised to take a long LOA. He wanted to check if the pollution in Manila and my school requirements were causing me the stress that acts as a catalyst to the headaches. So I took off a long LOA and although my headaches didn’t fully stop, it was significantly lessened.

After almost a year of rest, I decided to come back to school to pick up where I left off and it was really difficult. I only had a few friends left in school since most of them have already graduated, I was mostly alone and I spent a lot of time in the library either sleeping/doing homework. I was still getting headaches and it got bad again to the point that I had to take a LOA after midterms and this happened to around 2 or 3 consecutive terms. This turn of events wasn’t really helping my badly bruised self-confidence and self-worth. My headaches felt like hell and I felt like shit. I couldn’t stop criticizing myself and at one point, I hated myself so much that I thought about killing myself to stop the pain I felt from the headaches and to stop causing shame to my family. I had to take another LOA and after that one, I really thought hard if I should still come back. I felt worthless and I thought I should just stop and keep my parents from further pain and debt. I decided to try and work for a little while, so my best friend and I applied to a nearby call center. I know it wasn’t the best choice since it caused me enough stress from irate customers to get the headaches again after a couple of months but the people I met there helped heal a broken part of me that my parents could not mend.

I went back to school to finish my remaining subjects and during my last term, I had this really strong feeling that this was it, that I am really graduating. I will never forget my professors that last term. I remember one of them telling the whole class,

“To all those graduating or with only a few terms left, be proud of yourselves. I know some of you have experienced delays and failed a lot but don’t be ashamed because of it. Don’t focus on how long it took you to get here. Be proud because you never gave up. Yes, you struggled and failed but still, you never gave up and look where you are now. Stop berating yourselves for things that are already done. Be happy and enjoy the fruit of your hard work.”

It was like God was speaking to me directly. It seared through my heart and I couldn’t help tearing up. I kept the tears as much as I could and after the bell rang, I ran to the bathroom. I sat there for an hour and just cried. All the bitterness and shame in my heart started to wash away and I felt like it was time to forgive myself.

However I still had doubts and I couldn’t stop praying until the night before course cards. I only had 6 subjects that last term and I already knew my grades for all of them except one. The professor was going to upload our grades for that subject that night so I was glued to the computer, refreshing the site every five minutes or so. Once the notice that the grades were in showed up, my hands started shaking and my heart started beating rapidly. I said my last bit of prayer and clicked, then tears started falling down. I passed. Finally, after 7 years, I am graduating. I started to shout and call my Mom’s name, all the while jumping and crying for joy. Since she didn’t answer, I rushed out of my room and ran to their room. Once my Mom came out, she asked what’s wrong, why was I shouting and what’s with all the rush? I started to tell her and I couldn’t stop myself from hugging her and crying as I told her the good news. I was graduating.

I’m not perfect. I have flaws like everyone else and I’m not ashamed to admit it because I was raised from a great home by great loving parents who I wouldn’t exchange for anyone else in the world. Yes, we are not rich in material wealth. The home we live in right now is still rented and we still have a lot of debts and bills that we struggle to meet each month. We have our own family problems, we annoy each other endlessly and we have our little fights but at the end of the day we are one family. We make up, we hug and we continue with life.  Without my parents love and continued support, I would’ve lost my faith, my way and my life.

As William J. Bennet said, ”Home is a shelter from storms – all sorts of storms.“

I know mine is.

Greatness Starts at Home. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

This blog has been quiet for a while because I’ve been a bit busy the past 2 months. I started working as an information researcher for a private media firm in the construction industry so most of my time is spent at work and the 1 – 1 1/2 hour commutes in the morning and the afternoon. I ride LRT/Buendia based buses in the mornings and Batangas based buses in the afternoon. Sometimes I get lucky when I catch buses that allow discounted fares for regular commuters, but there are times when I have no choice but to get on whatever bus passes by to avoid being late for work.

I don’t have any complaints in the increase of bus fares since it’s part of life, what irks me are bus companies that charge fares with an extra P0.50.

For example, commuters from Tanauan to LRT/Buendia (and vice versa) are charged P95.50 on the ticket, but the conductors rarely give out P4.50 as change, most of the time you’ll only get P4.00. For each month I go to work, I get charged an additional P20.00 – P22.00 because I don’t receive an exact change.

I’d rather get a ticket that says P96.00 (which some buses do) so I wouldn’t feel cheated. P0.50 might be small change to some people, but if for example,  there are 1000 commuters daily:

P0.50*1000 = P500.00

That’s P500.00 daily additional profit for bus operators that is not reflected on the tickets. If those 1000 commuters work for 20-22 days a month like me:

P20.00*1000 = P20,000.00

That’s P20,000 monthly untaxed profit. I say untaxed because it’s not reflected in the bus tickets which works as our receipts. However, this problem is not exclusively for buses. There are also stores, groceries and fastfood chains doing this. They should always have a big bag of P0.25 coins each day so they can give exact changes.

To be fair to everyone, if they can’t round down their prices, they shouldn’t it round up.

Exact fares for Southbound buses, please? is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

“Fashion meets function” is the tagline of Flirty Aprons, a very chic and unique apron you won’t be embarrassed to gift people with. I’ve always liked kawaii aprons especially when I watch anime series that have cafes as one of the main hangout areas of the main characters. Most of the aprons I see locally are plain and boring so when I saw those uber cute and sexy aprons in television shows, I decided to look for the company that sells them. I only found them recently while I was looking for a great gift for family and friends since Mother’s Day is coming up soon and June weddings are just around the corner.

I checked out their site and found several chic designs that I’d love to order when my aunt leaves back for the US. These are the styles I loved:

Pearl Style - Flirty Aprons for Women

The Pearl style is perfect for formal dinners. You don’t have to worry about your dress getting ruined if something spills while you’re carrying something from the kitchen to the dining table, plus it looks fabulous.

Pink Chocolate Style - Flirty Aprons for Women

Pink Chocolate is just too cute. Perfect for baking kawaii cupcakes and whimsical cakes. The colors make me want to bake some cupcakes right now.

Mint-a-liscious Style - Flirty Aprons for Women

The Mint-a-liscious style looks great for summer parties and picnics. Makes me think of cool and refreshing lemonade in th afternoon.

Sugar and Spice Style - Flirty Aprons for Women

Zebra Style - Flirty Aprons for Women

Queen of Everything Style - Flirty Aprons for Women

The Sugar and Spice, Zebra and Queen of Everything styles can also work for formal dinners. I think they look really posh and would work for chic cafes and bakeries where the servers wear aprons and white just wouldn’t cut it.

They also have men’s aprons. They come in black or red and have some very interesting word plays:

BBQ King Style - Aprons For Men

Extremely Hot Style - Flirty Aprons For Men

Grill Sergeant Style - FlirtyAprons For Men

I also found several cute styles for children’s aprons, which is great for mother and daughter baking time or slumber+baking party. Some styles match the ones for the adult females while there are also other designs that are different.

I’m definitely getting myself at least two designs. Baking and cooking is fun, but plain aprons are boring. Having these kawaii aprons would definitely make baking parties and bake sales fun. These pretty and flirty aprons catch people’s attention and is a good topic for conversation.

Flirty Aprons: Fashionable Kawaii Aprons is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

I posted about browser games I play a year or two ago. I still play Pony Island, which isn’t a free horse riding game but a pay to play virtual horse game that focuses on generating, feeding, contesting and breeding ponies. It can get boring after a while so I also look for other free horse games or alternatives like house building games, dating simulation games and bowling games online to alleviate my boredom. My old computer can’t handle 3d online games so I try to look for browser games that aren’t resource hogs.

My younger siblings also enjoy playing online games. My younger brother usually plays Pokemon games online and Spider Man games but he is always on the hunt of cool games for boys to share with his friends. He also likes to look for John Cena games, Power Rangers games and other fighting games online.

My younger sister enjoys playing hair salon games and Barbie makeover games. She enjoys cute dress up games because she enjoys drawing a lot. She’s a little addicted to kawaii series and her anime DVD collection is growing each day. Although lately she’s been trying to find Hannah Montana games, Justin Bieber games and High School Musical games. I think she’s been watching too much Disney channel shows the past few weeks. She’s been singing songs from Hannah Montana and HSM, she’s also been humming Bieber’s “Baby” a lot.

My other two sisters on the other hand want to find bmx games online and get a hold of the Michael Jackson game (which I’ve never heard of before since I’m not exactly a fan of his).  I’d rather join my younger brother play Pokemon online games.

Pokemon, Spiderman, Hannah Montana and Justin Bieber games. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

I learned about Facebook around 2006 when someone mentioned in the the Off Topic forum of GoPets. Back then Facebook was a private social networking site that only allowed individuals from US companies, universities and organizations to join and connect with each other. I wasn’t able to sign-up immediately because I wasn’t in the US so I opted to be included in their mailing list so i would know when it would be open to other countries. I think I got the invitation back in 2007 and when I joined it wasn’t really populated with people and there weren’t much games apart from WarBook. The applications that used to generate a lot of interest were the ones that “generated” some sort of compensation for posts, clicks and surveys; like the apps launched by dNeero, AceBucks and ClixSense. I think it was ClixSense if I remember it correctly. I couldn’t find anyone I know there because not many people have joined it yet. The only time I got a real friend there was when I started blogging and learned that one of my blogger friends had a Facebook account which she also used for gaining traffic to her blogs through social networking and online marketing.

Fast-forward to 2009 and Facebook has really evolved from a small and relatively silent community into a large and thriving community. Dynamic applications started to sprout and many developers started creating games that attracted even more people to join. I admit that even I got addicted to the games in Facebook last year, especially with Pet Society, Mafia Wars, Farm Town, Restaurant City, Country Life and other tycoon games. After some time the novelty of the games faded after a lot of copycat games came out. It got boring when developers started using the same “formula” for all their games and simply tweaked the theme and graphics to create a “new” game. I used to be very active in adding people just for the sake of advancing on the games I played.

Lately, I’ve only used Facebook to keep in touch with friends and relatives. I’ve lost interest in the gaming aspect of FB because I realized I was neglecting a lot of my websites for something that isn’t beneficial to me at all. I’m glad to say that I have weaned myself from Facebook and only use it every now and then to communicate with friends and relatives.

Facebook-ing Pinoys. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

I passed by this blog post by WowBatangas a few days ago and wondered whether I should join or not. I was thinking maybe I should just pass this opportunity to meet other bloggers from Batangas because I haven’t been feeling the whole week due to severe coughs and sore throat. My cough and sore throat has eased so I’m thinking its a sign that I can go tomorrow to the first Batangas Bloggers Grand EyeBall which will be held in SM Lipa’s Event Center which starts at 4pm.

I figured this would be another awesome SM experience since it will be the first time I will really get to know Batangas-based bloggers (or would-be bloggers). I already met some lovely people last year when we had our WordPress Pinoy‘s EB’s when Ate Kengkay and Ate Beng came to the Philippines.

SM (or what I usually called Shoemart when I was still little) has been part of my life even before I started to go to school. I remember fondly going to SM Cubao a lot when I was little because my grandmother on my Dad’s side lived in Cubao. We’d stroll around the mall to find new toys that caught my fancy and just spend some family time together on Sundays there.

A few years passed and I started going to school in Tanauan. I always got excited when the month of May would roll by because it was time for new school supplies. It meant we would go to SM Cubao and shop for school supplies there. Then when they opened SM Southmall, shopping became easier for us because it was nearer. Dad started working in Alabang that time so we would visit him in Southridge, then we’d head off to Southmall after he was done with the things at work so we can eat and shop around.

A few years later, more malls popped and since ATC was nearer than Southmall, we’d opt going there. I missed SM by then but it was easier to go to ATC and Festival especially when the rush-hour starts. After a few more years, Robinson’s Lipa came and I was hoping we’d get an SM there as well because I grew up with SM. So when SM Lipa was opened, we were really happy that we can go there again as a family.Whenever we had extra funds, we would go out and eat together in SM. These were taken in Flavor’s of China and the other 3 ones were taken at the food court on another family bonding:

Then here are a few snapshots of our team’s get together in Yellow Cab and Greenwich early this year:

These are just part of my awesome experiences in SM malls. I have a lot more of them stored in my hard drive and my old school film photoalbums but it will take so much space. I had my birthday a couple of years ago in MOA with two of my friends and I’ve had other meet ups with blogger friends there as well apart from lunch and dinner dates with my sister.  SM has been a part of my life and will continue to do so because my life’s journey has been made more special with the memories I’ve had in SM malls.

Do you have an “Awesome SM Experience”? is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

The official list of candidates for graduation on DLSU’s 156th Commencement Exercises has finally been posted and my name is there! I’ve been waiting for it to come out today to confirm my graduation. So I will officially be graduating October 10, 2009 with the rest of the other students. I have been waiting for this day for a long time and I am very happy that I am finally getting my diploma in less than a month.

To all the other Octoberians, Congratulations!

156th Commencement Exercises here I come! is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

It’s been quite sometime since I last posted and no, its not because I have been looking for work. Rather I had been swamped with so much paperwork and presentations at the university that all my blogs and websites has been placed on the backburner. However, I am quite ecstatic to announce that all the manual labor hardwork and sleepless weeks caused by the final two hell weeks before the final examinations has paid off. I am going to be graduating very soon and will be joining the ranks of the country’s unemployed.

Since graduation day is less than a month from now, I have started the employment hunt. I do know that I want to pursue baking (I really love it) but to be able to continuously experiment on recipes I need to have ingredients. As we all know, the main ingredients of cakes and other baked products are flour, butter, milk and eggs. It’s quite expensive so I have to find a stable source of income so I can fund my passion. I’ll try freelance writing again and hopefully it will be enough to fund my mass baking sprees. I kid you not. When I get the itch to bake, I prepare several batches for taste-testing and our neighbors benefit from it. People at home are already sick of eating my baking experiments that they have stopped wanting cake.

Wish me luck on my hunt. Hopefully I get lots of writing opportunities so I can pursue my baking.

The employment hunt has begun. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

I was just wondering,

Are BPO’s allowed by law here in the Philippines to terminate an employee rather than accept their resignation (which is backed with a medical reason) when they have a target attrition rate limit during a specific period?

Termination due to attrition rate quotas? is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.

Rainy days are here again and apart from the seasonal regular influenza, it has brought with it the A(H1N1). Classes have been suspended, communities have been alerted and safety precautions have been dispersed. I just hope we don’t get too much casualties from this one.

Attack of the Flu. is an original content from BloggingPinay.com. If this text shows, it was copied without the original author's consent.