Once again, all my family members – including my in-laws, participated in a marathon run last Sunday. We were all present during the Condura Skyway Marathon 2012. The premiere running event is actually an advocacy run. The proceeds from the previous events  have been used on various notable projects that protect and care for the marine environment such as the Tubbataha Reefs, the Donsol whalesharks and the Bohol dolphins. For this year, the proceeds will be used to save the Philippine Mangroves.

After our successful run, we celebrated  not only because all us broke our individual personal previous records but it was also my brother-in-law’s birthday. In fact, his birthday was also announced during the run and the participants in his category sung a happy birthday song for him. He didn’t know what to do when it was announced and when he was called to go up in the stage.

We planned to have a brunch near the staging area of the marathon. Good thing there are a lot of restaurant where the  marathon was held. Since we don’t have the time anymore to go home, take a bath and change our clothes, we just refreshed ourselves with rubbing alcohol and apply some mood perfume to kill any foul odors. What a trick!

Anyway, our celebration didn’t end there. We had another celebration when we reached my brother-in-law’s house. The whole family ate lunch together (yes another lunch) and of course the ever-present ice cream and cake in every birthday occasion. I think that was not enough because when the night comes, we all had a dinner in a seafood restaurant.

All of us agreed that the driving force for all us to run as a group is the food after the event. So it seems our mantra is now “the family that runs together, eats together”.

What about you? Do you run or do activities with your family? What keeps you on doing those activities together?

It’s easy to get a credit card and it’s even easier to misuse it. Do you agree?

I had a chat with my former officemate last night who is now based in Texas, USA. She told me that she’s having a hard time in paying her credit card bills and other debts.It’s affecting her everyday life already because some creditors are harassing her through mails and phone calls. I honestly informed her that I don’t have much knowledge about credit card laws in the USA, but I shared to her my story on how I was able to clear my credit card debts. I even advice her to check on some plano credit repair company to assist and perhaps help her on how to clear her negative credit ratings too.

I used to have 6 different credit cards in my wallet. Whenever I want something, I just whip out my card thinking that I can pay it through my salary which I’m receiving every month. But it was a gross mistake on my part. What I always have in mind was my high credit card limit  but not the real cash on hand, and my monthly take home pay. And before I knew it, I was already buried in debt and unable to pay even the minimum payment.

This greatly affected my  credit history when it was time to get a loan.  Somehow, the banks knew that I defaulted on most of my credit cards payment in the past.

At first I did not inform my husband about my problem but since we need to get a loan from the bank, I disclosed to him what happened. My husband helped me by lending me some amount to gradually close all my credit cards. Yes, he wanted me to cut all my credit cards in two. Being a dutiful wife, I resigned to my husband’s desire. It was a struggle in the beginning  but when I was able to pay the full amount on the first credit card, everything became smoothly until I was able to settle all 6.

I don’t want to be in that situation again. So I followed my husband advice to drop everything. I even requested a certificate of full payment from the credit card companies just in case I’ll be needing them later on. I was glad I did. After some few years ( 2 years to be exact, I think), my credit report was on the positive side already and was able to get a loan for our house.

Lessons learned.

• Two credit cards is more than enough already.
• Control your spending even if you  have high credit limit.
• Don’t give in to installment basis if you can’t even pay the item in full cash.
• Pay the balance in full  on or before due date.
• If you’re having trouble paying your credit card debts, settle it as soon as possible.
• Tell your husband about your spending habit.

Read Filipiniana Books!
Buy Your Copies at the Filipinas Heritage Library Online Book Club

If you are a book lover, you should visit the newly improved Filipinas Heritage Library. They now have a generous list of Filipiniana books, journals, magazines, videos, music, and CD-ROMs (meaning the authors are Filipinos) sold online at their “Libros Filipinos” book club.

Its goal is to allow an extensive research place that is both available locally and internationally for the eyes and ears of kids or adults. Now, our fellow Filipinos, who are abroad and can’t go home in our country, can enjoy reading culture-based materials. From year 1996, the library has been a leading one-stop electronic library of Filipiniana books and other resources.

New projects on a widened commitment to reading beyond the functions of a traditional library have been started last year as part of its 15th year celebration. At “Filipiniana Online,” the price ranges from Php 80 to 11,100. Looking into the categories, you can see that a lot of these books are written under extraordinary and unique topics, anyone would absolutely die for!

Here are some of them:

• Ako si Kaliwa, Ako si Kanan (Category: Book: Children’s Literature) – written by author, Russell Molina
• Alien To Any Skin (Category: Book: Poetry) – written by author: Jim Pascual Agustin
• After The Storm: Stories on Ondoy (Category: Book: Essay) – written by editor, Elbert Or
• Bravo Filipino (Audio CD) (Category: Non Book: Multimedia) – written by author, Jaime Zobel
• Gitnang Uring Fantasya (Category: Book: Poetry) – written by author, Rolando B. Tolentino
• Legaspi: The Making of a National Artist  (Category: Book: Autobiography/Biography) – written by author, Alfredo A. Roces
• The Love of My Buhay: A Pinoy Love Poem Just For You (Category: Book: Poetry) –
• created by artist, Elbert Or
• The Road Less Travelled: Project Development by LGUs for LGUs (Category: Book: Reference) – written by authors, Colin Hubo, Dionisio Paelleras, Jr., Rolando Dy, Winston Conrad Padojinog and Gilbert Llanto
• True Encounters wth the Unknown (Category: Book: Fiction) – written by author, Jaime T. Licauco
• Unsurrendered 100 Voices (DVD) (Category: Non Book: Multimedia) – written by Author: A Spyron-AV Manila Production

Other projects are Book Donations, “Bravo,” “Teens Read, Too!” and the “MyLibrary” for communities and public schools, which was promoted last August 2011 by apl.de.ap, the famous Half-Filipino international singer and member of “Black Eyed Peas” group, when he opened a music studio, computer room and library at his own alma mater: Holy Angel University (HAU) and Sapang Bato National High School (SBNHS) in Angeles City, Pampanga.

Visit the site now for further details on the latest books. Just go through Bibliofiles, shop online with its website book catalog and read news or updates from the Filipinas Heritage Library. Even better, you can bring the whole family for an afternoon reading at their land location in the Nielson Tower, Makati.

Aim to dig-up the coolest finds, but low-cut gifts this season? Visit the Novel Discovery Bazaar now. Any budget would fit in with its really cheap and affordable products sold in kiosks, stalls and “tiangges.”

Here are some shopping tips from Ms. Aida Gregorio, the project manager herself:

• Start at the most convenient time possible. You should allow only two hours of shopping hours.
• Wear cool and comfortable clothes as well as limit wearing jewelries or accessories that can add to the hassle of carrying things that you have shopped for from stall to stall.
• Write down everything you want to buy and who will be given the gifts.
• There should be a definite budget for each gift to give.
• Bring shopping bags in reasonable numbers that you can use as well as re-use for shopping at the bazaar.
• Keep the receipt.
• Check what you have shopped for numbers and repairs.
• Take care and look after your personal possessions.

Prices for men and women t-shirts can range from Php 99 up to 150 only. On the other hand, shoes are offered in a buy-one-take one discount promo, which are made in high quality and in lots of sizes. There are also casual or formal blouses offered in 3 for Php 580, really affordable. You just have to buy once for 2 persons.

Store hours are: 11 am to 9 pm during Monday to Thursday and 11am to 10 pm during Friday to Sunday. This year, on its 11th run, there are 23 shopping days to enjoy. Namely they are:

• World Trade Center – November 18 to 27 and December 21 to 23
• PICC Forum – December 9 to 18

The proceeds of the bazaar will go to the GMA Kapuso Foundation, Associate Missionaries of Assumption and Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation. Helping are the hands of GMA Network and the Philippine Daily Inquirer to be able to acquire more buyers and sellers.

Were you shocked with the title of my post today? Don’t be.

It’s the time of year once more when many of us get loads of cash from year-end bonuses, at least for the working moms out there. And for those who are not in active working force anymore, well just ask for your husband’s bonuses. 

I’m pretty sure a lot of you can easily answer my question. Majority will answer ” spend, spend and spend!” Well, that’s my answer too… but I’m thinking on some other ways to put a part of it in savings. Not too big, but enough to start the ball rolling of savings for the future. My husband told me that If I want to keep my money, then I’ll just deposit it on a bank but If I want to make it grow then I need to invest it.

A badminton friend of mine told me that every end of the year, together with her husband, they pooled their money together and invest in stocks. Well, I don’t know anything about these kind of investments  but I’ve been reading more and more online like the Timothy Sykes penny stocks.

Good thing another friend of mine, who is connected to a local life insurance and a mutual fund company, explained to me how stocks works. Since I’m not an active player in buying and selling stocks, she encouraged me instead to look into mutual funds. She told me it’s the same with the pooling of money that my badminton friend is doing, the money for mutual funds is being pooled also from a lot of people and invest them on different portfolios like stocks. The advantage of this is that you don’t need to be involve in day-to-day o buying and selling of stocks since a Fund Manager will take care of it.

So for those of you who doesn’t know where to spend, I mean to save your hard earned money, you  may get in touch with me and I’ll refer you to my friend.

As couples grow old, they will need a retirement community wherein choosing a good health care system is vital. As Pinay Moms, you and your husbands should now start investing on an effective health care system. You can search them among the Internet advertisements offering this kind of services.

How can you say if it is the right choice for you? One should cover programs catered especially for needs on prevention of diseases and illness as well as the promotion healthy lifestyles for the both of you, endowment of the newest health technologies and guiding materials containing the most novel health and medical products, with particular treatments using special products for the prevention, health discovery and treatment of disease.

Life says that a good health is the heart of an investment. Every hale and hearty person can complete activities that make it meaningful to be alive. As you and you husband get old, so does your happiness level. Thus, exhausting more energy than you can think of. Incorporating a health care system in your routines is 1 way of sustaining and enhancing your health. You can combat daily environmental and behavioral threats in this way. Our goal in life should be to add years, life to these years.

If you are not still a part of it, nowadays, there is an obsession with bearing bodies to die for. Anyone of us would want to reach this state in our lives. Some even say that this effect on people is a good manner of skirmishing diseases and affecting relationships over actually no effort at all.

Health promoters also attest that end results of a good health care system show members on exhibiting added exercises, maintaining lighter weights and eating balanced diets that improves each day at their dining tables. Yet, critics of the said health solution have protested that this way of contouring up a body can only give us empty hearted and selfish personalities at the end. They say that members will only show care from own gratifications. However, stop worrying, because these conjunctions are so false.

Who are the experts to ask? If you really want a very effective health care system, you can consult the nearest health workers, health policy makers, health analysts and health service users reachable in your area. They should be capable of a better and broader grasps on aspects of health, its causes, needed phases and follow-up treatments. Besides, you can also read scholarly materials from books with chapter discussions on topics like academic debates, occupational health, health philosophy, policy statements, distribution and risks of health and disease patterns or health curriculum.

Incorporating studies on well-being under health care system will introduce the re-conceptualization of health, fresh ways of perceiving health, a new way of studying what health is, and a broadened understanding of health that was resulted due to an absence of disease or physical functioning to comprise of social issues, like transport, work, housing, sexuality and the diversity of risks with choice, behavioral and outlook factors.

Moreover, studying well-being in terms of health, a person’s key life experiences and conditions are compared with the health policy and practice, which you and your husband can actually be really facing today.

Hence, know what to include in a daily diet. See you and your husband today transform health into well-being with the benefits of a good health care system! It is the key to a balanced life.

Collecting is a wonderful hobby all ages can like. It is always fun to have your own set of to show friends and others. Owning a set of collectibles is a form fulfillment for anybody. You don’t have to buy the really expensive ones. Instead, think of things that can also be gathered and preserved in beauty. These collectibles can be your own creation or something irresistible to own that is sold in the market.

image from http://loyalkng.com

The forthcoming Guinness World Records, 2012 showcases these really famous collections today for avid fans to see and explore (or perhaps imitate):

• The largest collection of “Charlie’s Angels” memorabilia by Jack Condon of U.S.A. was awarded its title last September 2011. It currently bears 5,569 collectibles that were gathered way back in 1976 as love mementos for the said movie. The collectors first bought item is the “T.V. Guide” magazine’s cover feature of the 3 Angels.
• The largest collection of film projectors by Christos Psathas was started at Greece and awarded its title last July 2011 with 1,919 in count. Presently, 2 private museums host these memorabilia. The collector is still open in adding more rare ones to his hobby.
• The largest collection of clowns by Ortrud Kastaun of Germany bears 2,053 unique figures of the wonderful and comic icon. Though, they can be scary, these memorabilia are symbols of Ortrud herself, how she cope up with alcohol dependency and she resembles a clown.

If you want to start a new collection today, here are some tips to read:

• Do remember that a collection should be a group of objects with similar characteristics.
• List down the advantages and disadvantages.
• Set your choice of collectibles into its top five types.
• Consult your family, friends and co-workers on helping you pick the right items to buy.
• The objects collected should be relating to or affecting of one’s lifestyles.
• It should not be too expensive.
• Do remember that everyone has their own sets of collections.
• After, gaining the collection you always have wanted, the adventure doesn’t stop there. Keep on hunting for hard to find items to add.
• Present them in a very nice display rack or even in a museum.
• Find out if there are others who have the same famous collection as yours.

Collecting as a hobby can be found in millions of types. There are the baseball cards and caps, unicorns, newest gadgets, books, stamps and coins memorabilia. It can be even weirder like vomit bags or beer cans collections. It can also be seasonal like Holidays  or Fourth of July collectibles. Whatever is in craze, you can choose them as your collectible items. These can be really valuable in the future and you can earn big big bucks.

Funny pictures about real profile are circulating in Facebook. They may be true or perhaps “Photoshopped” by some talented designer who has all the time in the world to create this work of art to entertain us. Don’t quote me on this but I just saw these pictures on my friend’s link status.

I admit that I’ve found the pictures funny and sometimes hilarious too. See the samples here:

The question that is really bothering me is how true are the Facebook member’s profile. I guess our friend’s profile are absolutely for real but what about other people who are completely strangers to you but wanted to be your friend. How do you deal with them?

Prior to Facebook era and even before any social networking site were developed, there were already a lot of sites in the internet where you can meet and be friends with somebody who is totally stranger to you. Yahoo Messenger, ICQ and MSN are just some of the popular tools for online chatting. Of course there are also forums, and specific sites to meet the boy or the girl of your dream such as singles chat and other match making site out there. I even saw some sites that cater to divorce people and widows as well.Some are free while others are exclusive to a specific market. I swear, I haven’t even tried any of the  online dating sites but I don’t know with my hubby  (LOL). I think I will ask him tonight.

On the other side of the coin, how completely honest are you when writing your online profile on Facebook or any social networking sites? Do you claim to be somebody else? Do you pretend to be younger such as 20 or maybe 30 when you are already 40 going to 50? Have you lied on your profile? Do you upload your true profile picture instead of the sample pictures above?

I want to know your answers, please share them by writing your comment here.

This November 27, 2011, bring your family and friends to the “McHappy Day Fun Run 2011!” With a second time in a row, McDonald’s has again opened the event for the benefit of “Bright Minds Read” project in charity help. The Department of Education (DepEd) co-partners in making it successful. The organizer is the Eventking Corp. Together they make dreams of reading books and magazines for grade 1 students in the Philippines public schools possible.

The race venue and assembly is at the Mc Kinley Hills, Taguig City with levels of tracks in 1Km for kids with age 3-5 and 3Km for kids with age 6-12, 3Km for families in packs of 4 (though this ones already closed in registration,) and the 5Km for ages over 3 years old and 10Km open for ages 15 years old and above. The joining price for the race in 1Km for kids is Php 375, 3Km for kids is Php 425, 3Km for families in packs of 4 is Php 1,000, 5Km is Php 525 and 10Km is Php 725. You can register at any McDonald’s outlets.

Once joining, racers are asked to create their bibs in any style they want, place the best head dress for the occasion and wear their most favorite family costumes worn. These are special prices conditions that are awarded with gift certificates and cash for every winner, while the regular track prices waiting are also gift certificates and cash for every winner.

For more details on the “McHappy Day Fun Run 2011,” visit the www.mchappyday.com.ph today! Join the fun.

150,000+ runners will join this year’s 11.20.2011 Pasig River Run. The date of the race was included in the title showing a mirror of numbers, while the theme song will be “Salamin ng Ating Langit.” Assembly was held at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City and with the globe as the finish line. The Philippines is aiming another world record by exceeding the running number last year, which is actually the current international contender for the most set runs in a race named by the Guinness World Records.

This race is made possible by the joined efforts of Ms. Gina Lopez, who is the ABS-CBN Foundation Managing Director for “Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig,” and the 11.20.2011 Pasig River Run directors: Thumbie Remigio, PJ Villarta, Rio Dela Cruz and Eric Imperio. It is under the KBPIP, being a program for goals on developing the river through cleaning campaigns and fund-raising events. The organization is known for helping the communities of Calauan, Laguna through its relocating projects, adding improvement on technologies for cleaning the river’s water, training members of the River Warrior programs as well as implementing waste management procedures taught in communities concerned. All work for the Pasig river rehabilitation.

11.20.2011 Pasig River Run Categories:

• 3 kilometers route – begins at the corner of Roxas Boulevard and V. Sotto Street CCP Complex
• 5 kilometers route – begins at the corner of Roxas Boulevard and Pedro Gil Street
• 10 kilometers route – begins at the corner of Ocean Drive and Bayshore Avenue
• 21 kilometers route – a ceremonial run all over Metro Manila that is allowed only for the KBPIP sponsors and its partners who would also want to run the event.

According to Lopez, she wants this to be a yearly event for runners and in order to reach their desired number of participants they have to designate stricter rules on the event. Wherein, runners are asked to finish the race up to the last point. Since last year, there were some who didn’t get the chance to cross the line and remained in clusters. This was really a seen problem at that time.

Moreover, expected proceeds of about Php 40 Million this year are aimed to benefit the Estero de San Miguel in rehabilitation of the river as well as others like Estero de Paco that streams in current among the 5 channels of Malacañang Palace.

11.20.2011 Pasig River Run registration and rules can be found at the site. http://kbpip.abs-cbn.com/