Archive for the ‘Over a Cup of Coffee’ Category

The two books I have bought two (or is three?) weeks ago remain unread. Work has piled up so high that any form of recreation had to take a back seat. Now that everything is almost back to normal and my schedule has been slowly ironed out (gotta love schedules!), I think I can squeeze in a book this week. I plan to fix some things around the house and buy a couple of things like a computer chair, bunk bed, dresser and stainless steel drums – the list is pretty big I just hope that I can finally have some pure uninterrupted rest soon.

When I am not involved so much on surfing the net, I design on the side. I am not a certified (and educated in school-that-sort-of-thing) graphic artist/designer but I do some design work in the form of albums made digitally to look like scrapbook pages. Suffice to say, all of my clients are mothers, which suits me just fine actually.

Recently though I was asked if I can design a logo for a company that they will use in their business dealings – it will go in their letterhead, receipts, calling cards and web site. I was so intimidated! It didn’t stop when they asked me if I can make their ad brochures as well. Fortunately, everything went without a hitch and I even was able to refer them to a great brochure printing company. Conquest Graphics is also a green printing company which also does postcard printing. They employ many environmentally friendly and responsible practices in their everyday operations.

You can even qualify for free business cards! Just click on the link and you will be taken to that part of their web site.

I saw a video of YouTube sensation Charice Pempengco a few weeks ago showing her undergoing Botox treatment – at 18 years old! It has received negative backlash during the week it aired all over the internet, with many people commenting how young she is to need Botox. It turns out that Botox treatments can relieve TMJ pain, which Charice experiences. As it turns out, many people her age are already undergoing cosmetic surgery mexico – primarily on the face, to enhance features like the nose and lips (I think Angelina Jolie has an influence on how fuller lips are perceived to be more beautiful).

Aside from cosmetic surgery, breast augmentation surgery is one of the most popular procedures women undergo with plastic surgery mexico. I know it is a little too early for tummy tuck surgery or liposuction, many women are now open to it since vanity has been taken to mainstream with celebrities openly endorsing it.

Changing one’s personal appearance is a big decision. When carefully thought of and reflected upon, a person can experience a lot of happiness and self-contentment with looking the way they want.

Dr. Manuel Gutierrez of the Tijuana Plastic Surgery center heads the best cosmetic surgery center in Mexico. It is located in the busiest border in the world between Tijuana and San Diego California. This unique location draws patients from all over the world to the medical center.

One of my greatest fears for my husband is for him to be involved in a car accident. That is why I cannot help but be worried all the time whenever he is out working. We can never control the drivers on the roads. That is why denver car accident lawyers like Fuicelli & Lee, PC are known in their area for protecting the rights of people involved in car accidents.

For one, a denver accident lawyer from their firm treat you more than just a case number or file on a desk. You are guaranteed personalized attention from them, any time you contact them for their services. With more than 20 years of combined legal experience, including hundreds of trials, their known skilled attorneys Keith Fuicelli and John Lee are prepared to fight for you.

Here are some of the cases their denver accident lawyers can do for you:

• Automobile accidents, including drunk driving accidents
• Trucking accidents
• Brain injury
• Back and spinal cord injury
• Wrongful death
• And other personal injury cases

They go by their philosophy  of giving100% personal attention to every client, every time. The goal is to obtain the best possible outcome for their clients through strong representation and determination in order to resolve their legal problem as quickly and efficiently as possible.

When I was still single, I didn’t care for anything else, not even my mortality. I believe that when it’s your time, it’s going to be your time. I still hold it in regard even up to now so I can have more confidence in taking risks but I am afraid of the ones I will leave behind if ever I die. For me the issue is not me alone anymore but my children. Life Insurance is something I have been seriously thinking of getting – I’ve been going through a couple of Life Insurance Quotes given to me so I can decide what is going to be the best for us.

Aside from life insurance, I would like to have Funeral Insurance and Healthy Insurance too. I want to leave without giving my kids a headache.

You must know I love quotes and inspiring messages. I subscribe to blogs and twitter accounts to be able to get a daily dose of words to live by. In turn, I post them to my FB wall and retweet spam them all the time.

I think one quote is sure to be enough for one person to get inspired, sooner or later. I love these lessons from Abe Lincoln. People always refer to him as one of the greatest US presidents of all time. I learned from these lessons that being prepared for every opportunity is better than worrying and waiting for it to come (wrinkles will appear and you’d need prototype 37c for it!)

1. Prepare for Success
   
   

   “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.”

   Before you can succeed, you must prepare. When Lincoln was an unknown attorney in the backwoods of Illinois he was preparing for success, when Lincoln became an Illinois State Senator, he was preparing for success, and even when he lost the election for the U.S. senate twice, he was preparing for success. What are you doing in preparation for success? Lincoln said, “I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”

2. Hustle
   
   

   “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”

   You can’t stroll to a goal, you must hustle; you must move quickly in order to gain the momentum necessary to break free from the gravitational pull of the commonplace. The best things in life come to those who hustle. Are you hustling?

3. Remember That Greatness is Possible
   
   

   “That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”

   If someone else can succeed in the business that you’re in, that is proof that you can succeed as well. If someone else can become rich in the state that you’re in, that is proof that you become rich as well. You have all that the greatest of men have had: a mind, and a will. Don’t make excuses, if someone else can do it, so can you… And who knows? You may be able to do it faster and better; never underestimate you abilities.

4. Become Worthy of a Good Reputation
   
   

   “Reputation is like fine china, once broken it’s very hard to repair.”

   Work to be, the way you want to be perceived. Don’t try to look good, be good. A good name is more valuable than fine gold and “choice” rubies.
   Practice becoming honorable.
   You can be just as honest, have just as much integrity, walk in just as much humility, and possess just as much discipline as the greatest men who have ever lived.

5. Make the Years Count
   
   
   

   “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”

   
   Lincoln didn’t live to a very old age, but the “life in his years” made a profound impact on the world. Are you making your years count? Are you changing the world? You’re capable of it; if you’re able to read and understand these words, then you have the ability to make a profound impact, and that’s not just meaningless rhetoric, it’s a very real reality, but will you grasp it, will you believe it and make it “your” reality.

6. See the Brighter Side of Things
   
   

   “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”

   If you look for something to complain about, you will certainly find it! There’s “always” an opportunity to be “offended!” Don’t take these opportunities; they “never” lead to anything positive. Learn to see the roses in life; life is filled with roses, if you’ll take the time to see them.

7. Constantly Improve
   
   

   “The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can…”

   
   If you improve everyday, imagine the improvements you could make over the course of 20 years. You could become successful “in-just-about” any field in 20 years. You can make a significant impact on the world in 20 years! Remember, slow and steady wins the race; Rome was not built in a day. Work to get a little better everyday, and it time, you will accomplish your dreams.

Source

How do you narrow the world’s 100 most influential people? Apparently, Time Magazine was able to, and I look forward to a lot of opinions and controversies when this hits the shelves.

Apparently, Sarah Pahlin is included as a LEADER and Bill Clinton as a HERO. Where is Al Gore and his work for the environment? Lady Gaga is there – no contest about that. Her weird and forward ways of thinking is very 2000-ish. I wont be surprised if she is Generation Z’s icon like how my years were Madonna

Ashton Kutcher is there too – because he was the first to bring Twitter to mainstream by commanding a million followers beating a news channel Twitter account? Hmmmmm….OH-kay. He might be influential too if he endorses an acne cleanser!

Read all about them here.

With all the natural calamities happening left and right, the government has been issuing advisories that every household make a disaster preparedness kit for each member of the family. It consists of a waterproof bag with a set of clothes, extra batteries for gadgets (cellphones, radios), water for 24 hours, medical supplies (First Aid kit and medicines), important copies of documents (passports, birth certificates, etc) and slippers. I have not been able to do it for all of us, maybe because I am still in somewhat denial that it will happen to my family.

All of it has changed when my kids’ school advised that they have their own kit in their classrooms when school starts. Suddenly I am scared for me and my kids.

I was browsing some diet supplements when I chanced upon this article defining the 00’s. I thought it was a nice read.

No one is quite sure yet what this last decade will be called as we move forward and start trying to define, understand, and compartmentalize it. The ’80s were all about big hair, glam rock, and general excess. The ’90s were the decade of grunge, flannel, and angst. What will we collectively decide the ’00s were all about? And how will we pronounce it?

I say we should all band together and call this departing decade the "ohs." None of this "noughties" or "two-thousands" nonsense. Who’s with me?

On that note, here is my non-comprehensive list of items that have characterized the ’00s. What would you add to it?

1. The cell-phone explosion. I got my first cell phone in 1999, and I knew plenty of people who were still vehemently resisting the trend. "I’ve survived this long without one," they’d say, just before capitulating and becoming instantly dependent.
2. Closely related to item #1 is the rise of texting. It’s so convenient. So pervasive. So annoying.
3. Text and e-mail shorthand. LMAO! ROFL!
4. Capri pants. How I shall be sad to see them go away. (Or have they already? Not in my wardrobe.)
5. Apple mania. The iPod, the iPhone, the iMac, the iEverything. I’ve heard it suggested that we call the ’00s the iDecade (for more reasons than Apple alone).

6. Customization. Get your purple iPod, your designer M&Ms, your photo on a Kleenex box.

7. Google and the verbification thereof. "Hang on, let me google that for you…"

8. High heels with jeans. In particular, ridiculously impractical pointy-toe high heels.

9. The rise of the entitled generation. Go ahead, google this phrase; you’ll get 14.6 million results. (Members of the entitled generation do NOT realize that they’re entitled, so shhh…)

10. Empire-waist tops and skinny jeans. I hope empire-waist tops stick around for another decade. For once, there’s a trend that flatters my body—and pretty much everybody’s body.

11. The return of bangs. Come on, how many of us finally tried some softly sideswept bangs after eschewing them for two decades because of the bang nightmare of the ’80s? Thanks Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Garner!

15. The rumpled, tousled look in men’s hair. (And I’m not just talking about Robert Pattinson. Think Jason Bateman, Matthew McConaughey, Prince William.)

13. Self-publishing. Everyone’s blogging, vlogging, posting to YouTube, broadcasting who they are and what they’re doing at every minute of the day.

14. Along the same lines as #12, we have: connectivity. Cell phones, Blackberries, iPhones, laptops, linkedin.com, myspace.com, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter. The ’00s were all about being plugged in and hooked up.

15. Red Mini Coopers and lime green VW Beetles: the iconic ’00s cars. Right?

16. Out-of-control neologisms. (Neologism = newly coined word.) You know what I’m talking about: "metrosexual," "Bennifer," "Brangelina," "fugly," "staycation," "womenomics," and the list goes endlessly on.

17. Domesticity, ruffly aprons, everyday gourmet, Rachel Ray.

18. Oprah verging on becoming a supernatural being. Back in the ’90s, who could have predicted the power Oprah would one day wield? (Besides Oprah herself, that is.)

19. Environmentalism. Green is the new black.

20. The cult of creativity. Everything’s handmade, homemade, self-made, DIY. I place scrapbooking firmly in this category, thanks in part to the proliferation of digital cameras. Go ahead, embrace that inner artist!

If you believe in horoscopes or are curious as to what lies ahead for you this year – look no more. Whether you are a celebrity, housewife or energy auditor, you can see what is in store for you in this year of the tiger! 

TIGER
1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010

Zodiac’s Nature:

Unpredictable, rebellious, colorful, powerful, passionate, daring, impulsive, vigorous, stimulating, sincere, affectionate, humanitarian, generous. Can be restless, reckless, impatient, quick-tempered, obstinate, selfish, aggressive.

2010 is the year of the Golden Tiger so people born in the year of the Tiger are said to be offending the Grand Duke (Tai Suey Wu Hang) of the year and this will usher in inauspicious and difficult periods from time to time throughout the year. It is important that they should try to avoid going to funerals or attending wakes. If it cannot be avoided then they should not go home or go back to the office directly from the funeral or wake. Instead, they should stop by a restaurant or a crowded area along the way like a supermarket or a shopping mall. This is symbolic of shedding off the bad luck or negative energy in another place and not bringing it back to home or to the office. Then they must bathe with water that has been boiled with pomelo leaves to minimize their bad luck.

Tigers are offending the Tai Suey this year; scientifically they are affected by the unseen negative force from Jupiter on the Earth at 60 degrees Northeast. So, there are many unlucky stars that are gathered under their sign and present in their life cycle in year 2010, there is also a lack of lucky stars. They will face many problems and persecutions both in their work and private life. Thus, they should handle their work cautiously to avoid great failures.

In general, 2010 is not a good year for Tiger people, due to the influence of the planet Jupiter, thus Tigers should be flexible to cope with the sudden changes during the year. They have to mind their own business to avoid getting involved in disputes. They should steer clear from rumors and gossip. Beware of road safety to avoid accident. They will have some movement this year which translates as a chance to move house, change career or travel etc. However, it is important to keep in mind that they have to be more patient, keep a low profile and avoid conflict with people. Tigers should try to be humble enough to accept advice from older people because they must understand that experience cannot be purchased. A Chinese proverb says: “With one careless move, the whole game is over” and “There is always a person above the other”.

Although Tigers offend the Tai Suey this year, they will have a Powerful Star under their sign so that they can delegate and they will have more authority in their work. Conversely, they will face more challenges and annoyances that will cause them to have more stress and pressure. To conquer all the coming challenges, they should relax more and lift up their fighting spirit.

Financially, money luck is easy come and easy go; they can hardly save money this year. Therefore, they should be more conservative in handling their business and financial affairs especially in the lunar months of January, April and July. It is not a good year to start a new business or undergo expansion unless they are Tigers born in the lunar months of July, August, September, November and December. For these Tigers, they will have better luck this year and their chances of success are big.

Thus, these Tigers should treasure the timing and be alert to grasp opportunities to exhibit their talents throughout the year. Tigers should not be greedy because as I’ve said every year “Being too greedy will cause one to be poor” and will also cause bad luck to follow soon after. You can see in the year 2009 Year of the Earth Ox, if people were not too greedy for high interest returns then they would not have lost all their money in the stock market and other investments which in turn greatly contributed to the global crisis. So, it is absolutely not lucky for Tigers to invest in the stock market. Keep away from gambling and beware of money traps especially when engaged in contract signing. It is important not to lend money or be a loan guarantor otherwise they will suffer in the months to come. Instead, Tigers have to march, step by step to be successful this year.

In love affairs, this is not a romantic year for Tigers and they should not expect too much. They will easily have misunderstandings. Apart from this, they are quite emotional, jealous and suspicious. So, they should keep a clear mind since this will help them have a stable relationship. They have to be especially cautious in the lunar months of January, April, July and August. Regarding health, due to the influence of the unlucky stars; they should keep away from sharp objects and beware especially of road safety. Pay special attention when driving in the highway and avoid talking on the phone or texting while driving. Try to avoid any dangerous sports. Be cautious in the lunar months of January, April, May, June, July, August and October. It is important to do more exercise and be patient to avoid struggling with people. The younger generation of Tigers especially should avoid having too much nightlife since this is the way to avoid unnecessary troubles. Apart from this, Tigers should avoid visiting patients and attending funerals or wakes. For their protection, they have to carry a “Safety Medallion”, and a “White Jade Gourd” to avoid accidents. Try to have a blood test or donate blood in the beginning of this year after February 4, 2010. Do more charity. If possible, eat more vegetables than meat. Keeping happy always will help Tigers have better luck.

Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that the FDA (again) is on the hot seat. With the mounting cases against that diet pill, Yaz, lawsuits have been popping up in alarming levels. As of writing, I think there are now more than 50 different lawsuits against the manufacturing company that is unrelated to its manufacturing process.

Yaz is an oral contraceptive pill manufactured by Bayer and is nearly identical to the Yasmin birth control pill. It has been aggressively marketed without adequate warnings about serious and potentially life-threatening side effects.

Yaz Problems have been reported to be serious and life-threatening:

• Heart Attack or Stroke
• Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)>
• Pulmonary Embolism (PE)
• Gallbladder Disease
• Sudden Death on Yaz

There is a key ingredient in Yaz which makes it dangerous for some people. Drospirenone can increase blood potassium levels, known as hyperkalemia, which can result in the Yaz heart problems and other side effects. You are entitled to compensation if you have suffered from its side effects but the damage has been done. I just hope that the FDA comes up with stricter regulations regarding list prescription drugs. Quality assurance and standards should never be compromised. We are talking about human lives here.

FDA has received 50 reported deaths due to Yaz already. Wake up people!

I have never been interested in family law. I aim never to have to need to learn about child custody, divorce proceedings, alimony, and legal issues regarding separation because I would work very hard to keep our marriage intact. Unfortunately, not that much can be said among families today. Studies  estimated that 40% of all marriages have ended in divorce as of 2008 and 46% of all marriages involve a remarriage for one or both spouses. That sounds a tad bit depressing don’t you think so?

While you would need the best Athens GA Divorce Lawyers to protect your interests when legal proceedings are under way, you will never be able to protect your family’s prized possessions from the trauma and heartache of it all – your children. That is what an Atlanta divorce attorney strives to make sure to lessen the trauma, especially when children are tasked to appear in court, in child custody and support proceedings. Divorce Lawyers Alpharetta GA in Georgia are familiar with child custody and support especially the Kitchens, New and Cleghorn LLC Family Law Attorneys. In Georgia, for example, where they practice, there are two types of child custodies: the legal kind, joint legal custody, states that both parents have the right to contribute to major decisions regarding their children, and both parents share equal responsibility in carrying out those decisions. Joint physical custody, on the other hand, refers to the amount of time that a child is permitted to spend with each parent.

I believe in the sanctity of marriage so I would never advice that divorce to be the only solution to a failing marriage. However, if there are really no options left, you need the best kind of lawyers to represent you in court, so make sure you get the services of Kitchens, New and Cleghorn LLC .

I am not. I still have a million things to do and just as about every time I get overwhelmed, I do nothing.

1. I need to do one last general cleaning of the house before we go out of town for the new year.
2. I would need to renew all policies (Wholesale Insurance) before December 29th, the last day of the working year.
3. I need to dispose all the trash aka toy boxes and gift wrapping papers lying around the house.
4. I need to finish all work so I can make sure I can get paid on time next year.

“Perhaps the most difficult choices to make are the ones that deny us what our heart wants most, because as it’s been said, without reason and without prudence, the heart wants what the heart wants, and more often than not, it will not be denied.”

After pigging out on Christmas with the most delicious food, tradition dictates that we celebrate the new year by welcoming it with a big bang. That is why there is always a fireworks display when the clock strikes midnight and there are trumpets, clappers and maracas (toy ones) for the kids to play with. I have heard (and seen) horror tales of fingers getting cut off or poisoning due to ingestion of hazardous chemicals used in fireworks so I strongly advise families to have emergency medical supplies just in case. You can get these at JazzMedical.

Or, you can do a better option and welcome the new year with a prayer!

I am a firm believer and supporter of all natural products. Not only do they come cheaper (in som cases), these eco-friendly products do not harm the environment, in fact, they can even help save it. We are in the times when we need to take drastic action to preserve whatever is left of Mother Earth and each one of us should do our share to help protect it.

How do you take care of your skin naturally?

I have very sensitive skin. I tend to break out whenever I use skin care products on my skin, whatever it maybe. I have stuck with a skin care routine my Mom taught me and initiated me with since I was 9 – and it has worked well. I have never had any breakouts and my skin has stayed clear ever since. I use natural skin care ingredients too – jojoba, safflower oil, rose hip seed oil, shea butter, beeswax, witch hazel, aloe vera, tea tree oil, and chamomile.

Here are some of its uses:
Jojoba oil has moisturizing properties. It is used in most lotion and oils – especially for dry skin and babies’ skin.

Rose hip oil has healing properties. It is used for a variety of skin conditions, including dermatitis, acne and eczema, for mature and sun burnt skin as well as brittle nails and wrinkles. Rose hip oil is also frequently used to heal scarring and diminish photo-aging. You may see it as an active ingredient in most stretch mark creams.

Shea butter is famously known as a moisturizer cream and emulsion . It has known to be effective at treating the following conditions: fading scars, eczema, burns, rashes, acne, severely dry skin, blemishes, dark spots, skin discolorations, chapped lips, stretch marks, wrinkles, and in lessening the irritation of psoriasis. It provides natural ultraviolet sun protection, although the level of protection is extremely variable, ranging from nothing to approximately SPF 6. It is preferred because the butter absorbs rapidly into the skin without leaving a greasy feeling.

Beeswax can be used like petroleum jelly – as a lubricant and a barrier cream. I actually use this for waxing. It doesn’t irritate my skin as much.

Aloe Vera has had many claims to its benefits, as a moisturizer with soothing and healing properties. So famous has this been that you can find it as an ingredient to many products such as makeup, tissues, moisturizers, soaps, sunscreens, incense, razors and shampoos. I particularly use this for my dry hair.

Tee tree oil has antiseptic and antifungal, antibacterial actions – very well-known to treat pimples.

Save your skin while saving the Earth. Use only natural products!

Dear Santa,

I’ve been very good this year. Save from eating too much, I have not done anything intentionally wrong to hurt anybody. I hope I can get any of these in time for Christmas.

1. A Kindle
2. A Canon Powershot SD990
3. Wii and its corresponding wii accessories

But I would very much want these:
1. 24 hours of me time just to scrap.
2. 4 hours more of my usual 4-hour sleep time.
3. A day at the spa.
4. An overnight hotel accomodation
5. Baby sitter. For about a week.
6. Cleaning Lady. Forever please.

It came as a shock to hear about Oprah Winfrey’s announcement that her long standing show Oprah is coming to an end. Her show, spanning 25 seasons, have 6.8 million viewers, standing tall and above the rest among other talk shows. "Here is the real reason: I love this show. This show has been my life and I love it enough to know when its time to say goodbye," Winfrey said.

Not that Oprah Winfrey will be any less visible. It is expected that she will be opening a new show soon, under The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), and have more activities lined up for Harpo Productions – her multi-media outfit production company.

Oprah’s legendary sense of style and taste have clearly been seen in her show and her “O” magazine. It is no wonder that opening an Oprah store would come naturally. The Oprah Store, the official store of the Oprah Winfrey Show, houses 900 products that include souvenir items, loungewear, activewear, sleepwear, basics, O baby, and select South African arts and crafts.

It not surprising that is carries womens plus size clothing as Oprah herself has had to deal with plus-size issues all throughout her show. There are a lot of stuff on clearance that would make ideal Christmas gifts too.

Do not get misled though, that the store is only for women’s clothing. Things that Oprah loves are also there from blankets to umbrellas and baby stuff.

There are a lot of yoga clothing on sale, you might want to check them out too.

Some of the things that I love:

If you remember, I have blogged about controversial PETA ads before (flubber whale aimed at obesity amongst other things) and this one takes the cake especially since it’s the start of the holiday season.

The controversial Santa Clause ad says that normal cow milk can make men suffer impotency. And that taking the Viagra pill doesn’t guarantee that it will be solved at all. In fact, there are reports that 40% of men who take it don’t feel the effects at all. It was also reported the women can take the pill too, to increase their libido. PETA feels strongly in advocating people go the natural way.

As proven by medical science, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, prostate cancer, and hormonal imbalances are just some of the health problems that cause male impotency. Eating a diet rich in leafy greens, fruits, and grains will help you lose weight, prevent onset of diabetes, clear clogged arteries and stabilize hormones. PETA takes it one step further by telling people to ditch “artery-clogging” meat and dairy products as well (therein lies the normal cow milk causes impotency ad).

They even have a catchy tag line:

Vegetarians do make better lovers.

Here are some of their controversial impotency ads:

source.

I can never imagine life without chocolates.

I say that, because a friend who has two kids ages 9 and 7, and they have never tasted any forms of chocolate like milk chocolate their whole lives. I cannot even begin to imagine how that must feel like!

I’m a self-confessed sweet tooth. I have a great weakness to chocolate.

Add caramel and I go weak in the knees.

Add almonds, hazelnuts or just plain nuts and I go ga-ga.

My all time favorite chocolates are Twix, Mars (I don’t see this anymore, so sad), Almond Rocha and surprise — Dove Chocolate!

I prefer getting chocolate over flowers – and would often request that to my husband. My kids have inherited my love for chocolates as they need to have one after every meal. You can now tell that the recent Trick or Treat was very good for them. They seemed to have eaten more chocolates (and a lot of sugar) than they should for a night. I already told a friend to buy us the big assorted small bite packs when chocolate go on sale after Thanksgiving – they usually are on sale during that time. I plan to package them into loot bags to give away to children who sing carols during the holiday season. Instead of giving them money, which I do not know where they will spend on, I will give them chocolates – because let’s face it, anyone who receives chocolates is going to be a happy camper!

Chocolates are the classic gift choice for people during Christmas season! It has been proven to release endorphins which make people happy. It also has serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant. And the holiday season is a happy season, right? Add to that they have a good number of anti-oxidants which prevent aging.

So tell me, who wants chocolates this Christmas?

While blogging, Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook have brought us to a new level of communication on a mass level, there certainly has drawbacks.

For one thing, how can you be sure that people actually are more sociable? Just go to the malls and you see thousands of people on cellphones or laptops, not making talk to the people they are beside with. (Maybe they are just updating their status on FB and Twitter?) They are silent walking zombies, their fingers are their mouths now.

Are relationships really better? Shallow relationships just because of web connections are on the rise. I am scared it will make my kids anti-social in the future.

Are we accomplishing more everyday? I know I am NOT.

Obesity is on the rise because people are ignoring their exercise equipment and are in front of the computer the whole day (I am guilty of that). My son even complained of not being able to sleep after playing FB application games the whole day last weekend.

Yep, Social Media Marketing Madness alright!

I saw this posted over at Twitter and it reminded me to to do something I wanted to do ever since I got interested in politics again. Scratch that. Ever since I cared for the country again. For the kids. For the future of my family.

See, I have always been the apathetic citizen. Even at the height of most controversies, I don’t react. I get irritated – but that’s the only feeling you can get from me. I have become a cynic, after all. I have lost hope in my country and do not believe that a single citizen like me can change the country.

See, I am 28 and am not a registered voter. Hence, I never voted. You can never blame me for choosing the wrong people in office right now. But you can blame me for not even trying to try swinging the vote to the good side (even if there is ALWAYS massive cheating).

But that stops now. Because I want to care. For my kids. For my future.

So register and vote, will you?
This is the most that my blog will get political, I promise.

THE END

I have been closely monitoring US President Barrack Obama’s health care reform plan for days. Parts of it I still cannot understand, like how getting all American citizens health insurance (their basic right, mind you) is regarded as controversial.

Quoting what Obama said in an interview:

In the United States of America, no one should have to worry that they’ll go without health insurance — not for one year, not for one month, not for one day.

"And once I sign my health reform plan into law, they won’t

This issue hits close to home. As a mom who has been hospitalized once a year WITHOUT health insurance, it was a pain in the neck and draining to our very limited financial funds. It was a good thing that the husband’s office gives away payday advances so we were able to secure cash in such a short amount of time.

Not anybody can be granted a payday loan though. For starters, you need to have a job which has your salary directed to your current account, because you need a checkbook and a debit card for this. Of course once you get paid, you need to pay the full amount plus interest too. There are other financial payment plans one can avail of (if you also cannot afford to pay it all at the same time).

Here’s to health insurance – may it be a basic human right.

“Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew. “
- Pres. George W. Bush

I was on 24-hour duty at the hospital when it happened. I just arrived at the lab after extracting blood from a patient in the ICU when I noticed everyone was at the blood bank completely silent, watching something in the TV. I saw an airplane crash into a building and I thought it must be an accident. Not only did I not think of it as being a terrorist attack, I wasn’t able to comprehend it was happening in New York, in the United States, the most powerful country in the world. When the newscaster said that the Twin Towers of New York City has been under terrorist attack, I was terrified. I was trying to reach for my dreams, finishing school, dreaming of going there – my son was only 9 months old. If it can happen to them, what more to us?

I cried when I saw the building crumble. I imagined all the people there – the families they left behind, their children who would never see them. I wanted to go home, lock myself up and just be with my son. But I had to live, and lived I did. Each year, the memories of 911 seem to be more vague than the last, because, unfortunately, there were far worse things that had happened, maybe not on the worldwide level, but has directly affected how and the way we live here.

But I had to live, we have to live, and living we are.

We always have a choice to move forward and live the life we want.