The Journey. It’s Mine. [My personal take on love, life, parenting and blogging.]

The downside to working at home is you get cooped up inside your house, in front of your computer all the time. Even breathing can get difficult at times. Air inside can get stale you know. Your electric fan blowing hot air in the summer heat. A/C is still too expensive.

With my meager blog pay, the fan and the computer alone brings my electric bill to a sky-high level. Electric power is just too expensive around here…not to mention the crappiest service that these electric coops provide us with…

I wonder when Smart Bro/Wi-max/Whatever-DSL or something else (Satellite internet? 50+K PHP for the unit alone! On second thought, that’s just 1+K USD! He he.) will ever reach my barrio?

Hmmmmmmmmm… online business…online business…shopping cart system..not to sell used books ha! Secret muna.

Oh well…in my mind there’s a perfect scenario I’m dreaming about. In my conversation with A over YM just now, this is what went on:

Me: u know.. times like these? i should be outside in our yard
kahit small table and beach umbrella lang
laptop ko andun
may internet!
that would be THE life!

open air,
crickets in concert
cool wind caressing the leaves
the branches swaying with the wind.
maybe a moon in the sky
starry skies
tapos mag yo yosi ka
tahimik! ahahha
SARAP!

A: this is not negative, how about mosquitos?
baka ma-dengue

Me:  may electric mosquito killer naman
yung may UV light!

A: ok

Me:  a cocktail in the other hand

A: take it easy

Me: ang mga mahal mo sleeping soundly sa loob ng bahay

A:  yeah u want them sleeping kasi pasaway

Me: exactly!
hahaha

I’ve recently shopped for tops in the maxi-wear for ladies department over the web (a friend of mine in LB is selling via Facebook). Yes, I won’t be in denial anymore.

I’m not going to hide the flabs (that even fat burners won’t burn!)  in loose T-shirts but instead got myself some in-fashion preggy-look tops that really hide those flabs perfectly.

I tried two pieces and the maxi-size I chose fitted me well. Just thing morning, I choose 3 more styles for future ordering! Ha ha ha!There’s one more thing I’m gonna try on just for kicks: skinny jeans! I’ll see how it goes…

Well…it is indeed great to find an online sale. You can do your shopping in the comforts of your home. Even if you are at work. Just don’t let your boss see you while you do.

I for one have succumbed to online shopping and I’ve been doing it for years. It is just swell. As long as you pay for minimal shipping fees…I’m all in.

Besides, there are just stuff I can’t get online. I just don’t buy go online shopping on a regular basis. Maybe just twice or thrice a year. Else, that will put a hole in my pocket.

I just found this photo today. I’m guessing Raine took it. That’s me in my corner! Raine is always playing with my extra cellphone. He even discovered that there are several settings in taking pictures. Like this one, parang lumang picture.

see my notes on Flickr

That is the corner where I blog, do business (loading business) and get in touch with friends and love ones. That’s also where I watch movies when I feel like it.  Even in the middle of the night.

Also, in this corner….I can go to work even in my sleeping wear. No need for office clothes nor breeches.

If you are looking for a website that sells all kinds of prepaid loads, you’ll probably don’t get one. At least one that sells for Philippine prices. There was a time I was using a prepaid SIM in my cellphone to get online. It was 2 am and I was about to run out of load. I found a US-based e-load website that accepts payments via paypal — you can either use your credit card or paypal funds in the paypal payment gateway. The price was 150% of the local prices. I guess that was convenient for Filipinos abroad paying in dollars to load their roaming SIM or send load to their families in the Philippines. Still it was very expensive.

Okay here goes…

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I’ve gotten the hang of buying stuff online. Except that the websites are based in the U.S. (amazon, barnes and noble, AE, moor allure naturals) and so I have to pay for the shipping fees. With Amazon for example, there are stuff that cannot be shipped to the Philippines. Barnes and Noble accepts paypal payments  — which is swell. Though I haven’t yet bought anything at AE, they ship internationally as well.

In the Philippines, I only know PC Corner Online where you can buy computers online and it will be delivered to you anywhere in the Philippines. However, the transaction isn’t totally online. You call them for the stuff you will buy. You will be then given bank account details in order to deposit your payment. Then you wait for the delivery.

In the U.S. you can even do your grocery shopping online. No need not go outside. How cool is that? All you need is a valid credit/debit card.  If you are a work-at-home person, you need not even go out for months, live the life of  a modern hermit and buy everything (even your food) online. Hmmm…I know somebody who does just that. It’s a good thing his office doesn’t allow working remotely all the time. Else he’d be the total modern hermit.

Anyway, online transactions could be great, does it have a downside? Maybe to your social skills! Finding a sale could be easier online too. You can even avail of perks such as free shipping within the U.S. If this can happen in the Philippines and I’ve found this sale …I’m going to buy this ergonomic desktop keyboard. You have no idea how much I need ergonomic something these days.

With all these online shopping talk? I wish I live in the first world!

My second order of the moor allure naturals soothing herbal toner has arrived today. I’ve been without this wonderful product for some months now. I use moor allure naturals products not as acne cures but because i love their natural cleansing properties.

I especially love the toner because it really helped with my pores. Maybe now i can dump eskinol again and use the toner to rejuvenate my pores.

I never thought I’d be this fixated with cleansing my skin. But with oily skin problem like mine, who needs a moisturizer? I need all the scrubbing and cleansing I can get.

If there is one thing that I didn’t get to buy Raine when he was a baby was a baby stroller. For practical reasons. First I couldn’t buy one. Second, it was more convenient then to just carry Raine in my chest, in one of those baby straps. Gosh, my baby stuff terminologies have gotten rusty! He he.

Anyways, I might have relayed the story at some point here that I shopped the old fashioned way with a couple of my friends when I was six months pregnant. Had I been too net savvy then and had the resources, I would have just shopped online for baby stuff. But then shipping to the Phils. would have been too costly.

Speaking of baby strollers and shopping online, a Maclaren stroller is something I would have considered. Light weight, portable, stretchable legs, with carry handle, foot-operated pedal breaks, with water-proof hood, washable seats are among the many characteristics I would have weighed in, should I care for a branded one.

Durability is one too…you know, something like your 2nd or 3rd kid can still use.

My email inbox suddenly stopped receiving spam emails on ED drugs sale or discount. The old, hoax mail of million dollar inheritance and investment money are back. I mean, hello?! Do these spammers think that people forget? But then I guess there are still people out there that remains gullible to such offers in the mail.

On Friday morning, while I was waiting for my order at Jollibee Sorsogon…i received the following SMS in my cellphone: (I’m copying it here exactly how the text was written)

D/Auditor/s of PGMA Charity foundation inform u dat ur cel# Won P950,000 2nd prize winner draw last:JUL-17-2008 DTI1550 s2008 call now i’m Atty. William F. Gomez

Well…it’s been a long while since I last did forwarded SMSs or emails for that matter and I’m sorry to some few who keep including me in their mailing list for such forwarded emails — i DELETE them immediately, yes without even reading it first.

Going back to those hoax/spam SMSs: I searched Google for ‘PGMA Charity Foundation’ and bloggers’ accounts of receving such spam SMS date back to as old as 20o5. I remember my brother getting SMSs that he won a car in some contest. Even my mother who only send SMSs to her friends and some of our relatives purely for important stuff get those kinds of SMS!

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I have always complained that i haven’t done some decent book reading since I got pregnant with Raine. I mean reading to feed my soul or something, he he. I think all I’ve really read since then are stuff on parenting, pregnancy and babies. Then when I started blogging, it has gotten even worse! Who needs books when everything you can read online?!

But I really want to read books again.

(I am not counting 7 books of Harry Potter in this category, okay? No offense to JK Rowling. I soooo loved the way she turned around her life and wrote Harry Potter instead. Who would have known, right? Besides, my whole family loves HP, the books and the movies too. My younger brothers who I guess has never read a novel their whole lives, has picked up the HP books with enthusiasm and read all 7 from cover to cover. How can I not love JK Rowling, if only for that?)

I’m just hungry for some real reading. You know the kind that doesn’t include the words antioxidant, stem cells, flavonoids, metastatic or autoimmune in any paragraph or sentence!

Of course in the last 5 years, books are a luxury. I was buying diapers, milk, baby food; paying the nanny, the rent…you know, stuff — far more basic than books to feed my soul. Ha ha ha. Besides, I just couldn’t find a real quiet time all those years.

Anyway, my amazon shopping cart are filled with books I have been wanting to read. Ready for checkout. Then my PC monitor went kaput. I had to buy a new one. Again, goodbye books. Stay in the shopping cart longer. Maybe next month? I really hope so.

What do we need to do to get into debt relief?

First rule of thumb is: spend only what your budget can afford.

Yeah right! Easier said than done.

Second rule of thumb is: leave your credit cards at home when going shopping or malling.

That is if you can bring enough cash with you!

Third rule of thumb:  if you do not have enough cash with you, don’t go out of your house!

Ha ha ha ha.

…last week while I was away:

I just wanted to let Sasha know. I love these: the soap cleanser is very mild, almost odorless. And the toner! Smells like tea. So refreshing. I just have to remember not to drink it. He he.

By the way, I gave the moisturizer to my mother, it’s making my face more oily. I’m not sure  if oily skin needs moisturizer still.

Anyway… thanks a lot Beauty Bento Box and Moor Allure Naturals!

Two years ago was the last time I stood godmother to a child being baptized. Don’t ask me when were the ones before that (and how many godchildren I already have) because I really do not remember now and have lost count already.

Giving baptism gift is really tricky. Sometimes it is so easy to just give money as baptism gift. Although a nicely picked gift would really be nice and personal. Sometimes giving money as gift can be too impersonal, right?

BUT. Whenever I push myself to really shop and pick a gift, most of the time I ended up wishing I could have bought something better and with the wide array of selections I often cannot decide what to pick.

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I can attest to the power of the internet. But we all should it well. If used well, the internet can actually make our lives better.

Aside from blogging, earning money online, i love the internet because (most of all) I can do online banking. You wouldn’t want to go personally to the bank (to deposit funds to somebody or pay your bills) in my part of the world where queues are toxic.

That been said, online banking to me is heaven.

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These arrived this afternoon…at last!

Now, I can stop whining about the delay. Raine loved it all.

I can’t remember how many times I decide on one thing, do the preliminaries and then later, when my excitement and interest have waned a bit, I don’t follow up anymore.

Like when how many times I completed an EOI form at the NZ Immigration website. I always submit but never paid it. If I don’t pay the process, my EOI (expression of interest) will never get to the pool and be considered to be invited to migrate in kiwi land.

Just one of the many plans I started to pursue but never gotten round to finishing the task.

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Remember that EON Visa debit card attached to my paypal account? I was able to use it for online purchasing with no problem in the past.

However, for the first time that I’ve tried using the card in purchasing e-tickets from Cebu Pacific, the card was declined even if my account has enough funds to cover the total charges.

Then I went to PAL, did the same and guess what?! Same problem persists.

So it must be the card right?

Anybody else with related experience? Please tell me it isn’t just me or I may have to throw this card down the cliff at the back.

And do you know how hard it is to connect and talk to a Cebu Pacific reservation officer at this hotline number: 02-7020-888? Very horribly hard!