Disoriented

I am feeling disoriented these days - all work related. Since the account is new and a lot of things aren't in place yet, I've only had a maximum of 5 hours of sleep since Thursday. I was even at work last weekend.

Moving to another site is another factor. When you are suddenly plucked out of your comfort zone, wouldn't you be disoriented too? I honestly miss the people I worked with back at the other site. I miss the office. At the new site I am still settling in. Trying to get to know the people. Please don't get me wrong, I am not complaining - just voicing out my stress.

I tell myself this too shall pass. Once the new account settles in a couple of months and I get to know people around, I am sure I will enjoy every bit of my working day as I did with the other site. But for now, I'd have to deal.

Mint Credit Cards

I've been thinking about getting a credit card these days. My friend is advising me not to because he says it's really hard to manage and pay off. I asked him why he was having a hard time paying off his credit card balance and he said he wasn't able to pay the amount in full and would only pay the minimum balance every month. Well there you go.

I however helped him find a low interest card that has a great credit card balance transfer benefit. I told him about Mint credit cards and about the great benefits they offer. They even offer free additional card for a friend or partner! My friend is really excited about it and will most probably get their services. I told him he better get me a free additional card! lol! I was just kidding of course. I want my own mint credit card!

Another DIRT Post

Okay, I just finsihed the first season of DIRT and I can't wait for the next season! I guess it just depends on your type of TV series, but I like it, I really do. The story line is intriguing.

And to FRIENDS addicts like me, here's a little spoiler. One of the cast of FRIENDS shows up towards the end of the season 1 and I think that person stays in the show for quite some time. ;) Have fun guessing! Or better yet, watch the series. ;)

Anyone for Goth?

Have you guys watched The Craft? I watched that movie like thrice I think. Not because of the story but because I so wanted to dress like Robin Tunney that time. Their costumes were so Goth and it called out to me lol! But of course my parents would not hear anything of it! Their eyes were like saucer-wide when I told them I wanted to paint my fingernails black! Hahahah!

Just so you know, I was in high school then. I completely outgrew that phase in my life. I sort of remembered it when I was surfing the net and stumbled upon this goth dating site and though it cool!

If you are into gothic personals then this is the site for you. It's free and easy to explore. You can even block a member from your searches if you aren't interested. Other cool features include browsing photos upfront and see members who are online.

Babbling and Babbling Along

The dollar exchange went up a notch and this is really good news for me. Good news for my online earnings doing blogging. ;)

So how is everyone today? I've been quite hectic but I am loving my new schedule. It gives me enough time to blog when I get home in the morning while getting enough sleep after. Too bad my schedule next week is different because of the launch of our new account. Oh well, it's only for next week anyway. And besides, like Spiderman says: "With great power, comes great responsibility." And while I don't have great power, I believe that quote is true in our careers. When you get promoted, be ready for more responsibilities. ;)

Speaking of work, it's been really crazy juggling 2 accounts but the wierd thing is, I am enjoying it. Enjoying the challenge, loving my work more and the new tasks does not bother me a bit. Aaack! Am I a workaholic now??!?

On the home front, I am grateful that God asnwered my prayer of helping me find balance between work and home life. I am having the time of my life with the husband. Well, we do not see each other often within the week save for a couple of hours when he arrives home and me getting ready for work, but that is still something, right? I mean, I'd rather have that than nothing at all. We talk more, share more, love more.

Things aren't perfect though, we still fight, we still get on each others nerves but lilke Aggie says, everything is a choice. Being happy is a choice. Loving someone is a choice. And I committed myself to choose to be happy; choose to love; choose to share and be selfless. It is no easy task but it gives my life meaning and direction.

Hmm...what else? Oh, Saturday is Lala and Ronnie's wedding. Lala is Lala Roque of Channel 7. She and Ronnie are part of our Spiritual family (which I miss badly by the way.) She and Ron have been together for 12 years (?) Basta super long long time na hehehe! Lala, Ron, I do not know if you guys are reading this, but I am really really sorry I wouldn't be able to make it to the wedding. (The husband already did the RSVP thingy for him though ;) ) The husband will be there. I hope his size will be enough to represent us both hehe. But seriously, all the best to you both. I speak blessings into your lives, as individuals and as a married couple. I pray for abundance and prosperity, happiness, understanding, love and as Jackie would like to say, lots and lots of "tingaling!" *wink* LOL!

So enough of my babbling! Have a good one y'all!

Our Bedroom's Air Quality

In all honesty, without beating an eyelash, I will say our bedroom is a mess. It looks like a warehouse, only worse. The roof leaks when it rains hard, the walls unpainted and the floor, oh! do not let me get started on those cement floors!

I mean, it's cement so imagine the horrors of cleaning. What should take half an hour (or probably less) of sweeping and dusting takes me about an hour and a half. And if that's not bad enough, because of the cement floor, dust settles in a couple of minutes after you sweep. Sheesh!

Plans are on the way to put tile floorings so I guess I should look forward to that but until then, I found a great way to help me clean not only our room but the entire house. Talk about savings!

I am talking about Central Vacuums. It's efficient, light weight and convenient. It does sound a bit expensive but if cleans and imrpoves the quality fo air in our room, then I'd go for this one.

DVD Weekend

How was your weekend? I am back with a weekend update. So we stayed at my parent's place for the weekend and because of the chilly weather, the husband and I decided to sleep in and watch some TV series. Remember my post the other day about missing friends? Well, because of that I bought season 1 of DIRT. It stars Courteney Cox-Arquette as Lucy Spiller, editor-in-chief of DIRT magazines. I can't say it's good but I guess it got me engrossed enough to still be watching it til a while ago lol!

That was the activity for Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon 'til Monday morning was sleep time for me. It's the only day I get to make up for lack of sleep. :)

Monday saw me, my mom, my dad and siblings in Greenhills. We had a wonderful lunch coupled with a lot of stories. Gosh I realized I missed them so much! After lunch we just went around and bought some stuff and voila, here I am back in the office.

That's as far as my weekend goes. How was yours?

Secure Your Homes!

When I was still a teen, my dad would always remind us to check the doors and locks every night. He had a good reason to do so, our country had a realy high crime rate and being lax about home security would mean disaster. Some of my well off classmates even had Security Cameras in parts of their houses.

Time and time again I would read about people being tied up while their homes were being ravaged by robbers. Or sometimes, they would come home from work and find their houses empty of their most treasured belongings. I sometimes wonder why these people don't even go to the extent of gathering information about home security.

Now if you're as OC as my dad (I am thankful that he is!) then I suggest you gather information on how to secure and protect your homes. I strongly advise you to do this not only for your treasured belongings but most importantly, the safety of your family.

Away

Hello! The husband and I will be staying over at my parents house for the weekend. This means no internet. I'll be back posting by Sunday. So I'll see you soon. :) Before I go, remember my post about the Next Big Thing in photography? Well, I leave you with this ad. To mommies out there, Metrophoto is really the best thing for your kid's parties. Visit their website to see portfolios and I am sure you will be blown away. Toodles!

I Got Thoof!

I am a frequest visitor of a couple of news website where I get to read about current events and other stuff. With all of these sites I get general news meaning they're not customized to my interests. I could, but the process is quite long and frankly I am just too lazy to go through a lot of processes just to taxing for me.

But I have a new best friend now. It's my Thoof! This site is wonderful as it gives me personalized news and information based on my individual likes and preferences. Instead of giving me news that the general population likes, Thoof's personalized algorithm gives me those that I am interested in. Saves me time from searching and searching.

Aside from giving me great news and information, Thoof also helps drive traffic to my site with the ThoofRank. By submitting my stories to Thoof, ThoofRank measures the interest level of my stories and helps drive traffic to my site. The more interesting my story is, the higher the percentage. I've been submitting several entries from my different blogs and Thoof has really helped. You guys should try it soemtime.

I've spent about an hour just reading and reading about news and information on Thoof and I've really been finding great stuff to read. From worrying about getting old to disappointing tourist sites then to parental hysteria. lol! Well, I better get back to work now. Seriously, try Thoof!

Missing FRIENDS

I was watching The Ellen Degeneres Show a while ago and one of her guests was Courteney Cox-Arquette. I am a huge F.R.I.E.N.D.S fan so seeing her on the show immediately got my attention. She looks so different now and her voice sounds different too! But seeing Courteney (a.k.a Monica Geller) made me miss Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe too! Lol! No hassle though as I immediately popped a season of F.R.I.E.N.D.S after the Ellen show. Can you say addict? LOL!

Speaking of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, I bought Season 2 of JOEY starring no less than Matt Le Blanc. :) The show only has 2 seasons, but man! I had tons of fun watching Joey and his antics! It's a somewhat different Joey Tribbianni though. He has a more serious side now but he still has his suave sex appeal and of course who can miss his "intelligence" *wink*

I wish they'd do a part II of F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

BRITISH GAS LAUNCHES GREENEST ENERGY TARIFF

9 August 2007: British Gas has announced it is launching two new green energy tariffs, Zero Carbon, which will be the greenest tariff available on the domestic market and Future Energy. British Gas has launched the tariffs, in response to the increasing demand for green energy products.

Householders signing up to the Zero Carbon tariff will:
• reduce their household energy carbon emissions to zero through Kyoto compliant offset schemes which will meet the new Defra requirements
• help fund a direct increase in investment in renewable energy generated in the UK
• contribute to the new British Gas green fund which will:
o invest in developing new renewable technologies such as wave power
o oversee a programme to help schools in the UK reduce their CO2 emissions

Gearóid Lane, Managing Director British Gas New Energy said,”Our new tariff responds to consumer demand for truly green energy solutions. It is essential that customers have confidence in green energy tariffs and that their credibility is not damaged by tariffs that claim to be green but in reality do not deliver any incremental environmental benefits. Green tariffs are moving from niche to mainstream products and we’re leading the industry by offering a tariff that will do more for the environment than any other product currently available.”

Under the government’s Renewables Obligation (RO), electricity suppliers in the UK are already required to produce an increasing percentage of their electricity through methods such as wind farms which, unlike traditional power plants, produce zero carbon emissions. For 2007/2008 this figure is set at 7.9%.

In a recent report, the National Consumer Council (NCC) raised concerns that some energy suppliers are packaging electricity which is produced under the RO scheme as “green”, yet it delivers no additional environmental benefits. The NCC called on energy suppliers to take steps beyond their legal requirements and offer green energy tariffs that provide genuine additional environmental benefits, in particular CO2 emissions reduction.

British Gas worked with Global Action Plan and The Climate Group’s “We’re in this Together” campaign to develop Zero Carbon which goes further than any other green tariff in meeting these requirements offering consumers the only zero carbon option on the market.

The tariff carries a premium of £84 per year, reflecting the higher cost of producing energy through lower carbon emission schemes.

Virginia Graham, Chair of Global Action Plan, said, “The British Gas Zero Carbon tariff delivers on all three of the essential requirements of a green tariff which are: additionality, transparency and verifiability. As such it is a very welcome new offering in the market. Consumers signing up to the tariff can be confident that they are getting 12 per cent more renewable energy than they would otherwise have got. The carbon emissions from their electricity and gas will also be offset with emissions reductions from projects accredited by the United Nations.”

Zero Carbon is one of the first initiatives launched through the ‘We’re in this Together’ campaign, which was launched in April 07 as an alliance of some of the UK’s biggest brands who are all working to help their customers reduce their impact on the climate.

Dr Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group and founder of ‘We’re in this Together’ said, “We’re committed to offering people ways to make a real impact on climate change through Together.com. We’ve worked with British Gas to ensure that Zero Carbon is a genuine step forward in delivering more environmental benefits than any other tariff currently available.”

British Gas’s second green energy tariff, Future Energy, offers an alternative green electricity tariff at a premium of just £20 per year. Customers signing up to this tariff will contribute to a green fund which will provide solar panels and other renewable energy technologies to UK schools. Money from the fund will also be invested in development of future renewable technologies and sources.

To sign up customers can call British Gas on 0845 604 0055 or visit www.britishgas.co.uk

Strange but this is true about me :P

What Your Hands Say About You

You are logical, analytical, and rational. You have good verbal skills. Flexible and broad minded, you can fit in to any situation. There's no telling where your life will take you. Consistent and reliable, you like to count on structure and routine in your life. Your emotions tend to be nervous and potent. Your energy - both positive and negative - deeply impacts your life.

What Do Your Hands Say About You?

Unproductive at Work

I could not get any work done. For some reason I could not access our network where all of our files are located. I am getting frustrated by the minute. I called up our IT folks and they say they'll get the computer in the morning and will take about 3 to 4 hours to re-image the PC. I asked if they could get the CPU and do the re-imaging now but the person I spoke with said: "Well it's going to take 3 to 4 hours so let's do it in the morning." I had to bite my tongue from saying something really nasty.

I'm sorry, I know they have other tasks on hand too, and as much as I want to understand, I just didn't see the point in waiting until the morning to get the CPU and thus prolonging the process. If they get the CPU now, who knows it gets finished early.

I'm just ranting here cause I have a lot of things I need to do that totally depends on that network drive. But hey, maybe this is a good thing after all since I could post. :P

San Francisco Sight Seeing

Our friends will celebrate their 10th year wedding anniversary in a couple of days and I heard they will be taking a romantic out of town trip. Awww! I wish you all the best guys!

It got me dreaming of our 10th year wedding anniversary plans. I've a lot in mind but watching a favorite TV show made me think about San Francisco. I know, I know, Paris sounds more romantic but San Francisco sounds fun!

It could be romantic too you know. We could visit Sonoma and Napa counties and do a wine country sightseeing or go to Fisherman's wharf and enjoy the view. Whee, my nerves are tingling with excitement, am I crazy or what? lol!

So like the dreamer that I am, I found this wonderful site that has a lot of great deals on San Francisco Sightseeing . From a Deluxe city tour to a Bike the Golden Gate tour, name it they've got it!

The site is so easy to navigate and the prices you see already includes taxes and fees. You can even print eTickets at home! How great is that? And take this, they give a detailed view of the trip and an interactive map to boot!

I definitely will go book with them on our 10th. For the meantime, I'll subscribe to their Trusted Tours eNewsletter to keep me up to date.

Now, I wonder how crooked Lombard Street really is? lol!

Up for the Challenge!

The promotion was finalized today. Starting Monday, I will be a Workforce Supervisor for a new account. Yey! It's going to be quite a challenge though as I will be juggling 2 accounts for the first 3 months.

I feel elated and nervous at the same time. Am I really ready for this? Well, God must have thought so for Him to have given me this favor and I am extremely thankful.

If God thinks I am ready then bring it on! I am up for the challenge!

One Fine Sunday

Ahhh..time, sweet time to update my blog! :)

Finally able to catch up with my backlogs at work. If being out of the office for 1 day gives me tons of work when i return, imagine the load when I am out for 5 days! That's exactly what happened when I was on emergency leave due to the husband's stay at the hospital.

He's doing well now by the way, and he might go back to work next week once he gets a go signal from the doctor.

So anyway, the weekend was a blast. I selpt all day Saturday, but Sunday was a different story. I had the most wonderful time with my in-laws! It was something I have been praying for, for the longest time. A chance to go out and bond with my in-laws. The timinig couldn't be perfect (well, it wasn't suprising since God's timing is always perfect :) ), it was my daddy-in-law's 65th birthday last Friday and his last day at work. So to celebrate his birthday and retirement we decided to bring him out to lunch. Good thing that Tita Bhie went here from San Jose to visit her kids. Cary and Amy (the husband's cousins) were also game with the plan and brought their kids with them.

We all trekked to Seaside Macapagal for lunch. As always we went straight to Julie's. We just love how they cook seafood. :) We had a sumptous lunch with a lot of stories and just basically bonding. For a moment, I sat back and watched all the laughter and stories everyone shared. I thanked God that my prayers were answered. Surely, after that tumultuous season a few months back, God has replaced pain with joy. It made the family bond stronger.

Let me share a few pictures:

Cary with daughter Mia bonding

Mia - isn't she just adorable?

Our family - Mommy-in-law, me, the husband and daddy-in-law. and yes, I had my hair cut :)

All of us :)

After the hearty lunch, we trekked to the mall of asia where we just sort of continued our chikahan and tawanan ;)

It was really a day to remember and of course everyone enjoyed with a heartfelt promise that family gatherings like these will be done more frequently even without an occassion.

I leave you my personal favorite shot while in the Mall of Asia.

isn't he adorable? The kid was just walking when his trousers kind of fell. hihihi! Have a wonderful week everyone!