Year End Productivity Report

Its 11:30 PM, December 30th. just a few more hours till 2007.

I am currently listening to Mig Ayesa's Baby I Love your Way. Man! This guy can sing. I can listen to his very soulful and amazing rendition of this song forever.

Listening to this song got me to thinking about 2006. All my accomplishments, trials, and failures.

Here is a summary of the things that happened to me this year

Jan- I created a much more cleaner design for Noypi Writers. I also started to gain weight after losing more or less 20 kilograms.

Feb- it became apparent that I was going to gain back all the weight that I lost over the past few months.

March- I transferred Noypi Writers to a blog because it proved hard to maintain manually.

April- My friend encouraged me to go to the gym with him.

May- After a few weeks, I surrendered and hated my best friend for insisting that I go to the gym. My body was sore 'till June.

June- Back to duty. Back to NCM. We now have duties in the Operating and Delivery room. My first duty for the school year is in the Brent Hospital. We were assigned at the ER. My clinical instructor scolded me for being slow. That really crushed my spirits.

July- I gained more pounds. I was able to form a friendship with a girl who is my dutymate. This girl is real fun and so I had so much great moments with her. We're still friends by the way up to this moment. I remember telling her once that if we were still friends by December, we should exchange gifts. Thinking about that made me feel so guilty. You see, to me she was just an ally in my RLE. You have got to understand where the defensiveness comes from. You see, I am not a social creature (which was one of the reasons why I didn't want to be a nurse), and in our RLE when somebody acts rather quiet and anti social, you get eaten up by the extrovert people in the group.

September- I have discovered Xoops, an open source CMS. Xoops paved the way for me to create a Noypi Writers based on php and mysql. This new found knowledge is helpful since it'll make postings automatic. CMSs would also provide a log in system. My free web host though suspended my account because of its heavy traffic.

October- I made a new website with Noypi Writer's concept but with a different name: Pinoy Penster Community. The change in name was because of the fact that Noypi Writers already has a not so good reputation with it being taken on and off the Internet frequently.

November- I emailed some web hosting companies both in the Philippines and abroad. I asked them to sponsor hosting and domain registration for Pinoy Penster Community. I told them that it would be for a good cause since they would be helping Amateur Filipino Writers and offered them an ad space in the website. I emailed these company not expecting a reply from any of them. After a while, I discovered that one of them replied to my email and agreed to give me Penster.fyi.ph. I was so happy with this development, I mean who would have thought that someone would be willing to sponsor Pinoy Penster Community a web hosting and domain name. Then came another email from another Philippine web hosting company which offered me free hosting and free top level domain name. I was absolutely ecstatic when I read their email. I immediately told my online friend (who is also my adviser when it comes to these online money making activities of mine) about what happened. The better offer was apparently in exchange for 10 articles (SEO writing) per month. At that time I was absolutely desperate to have a website with a top level domain name. But as weeks passed and after many consultations with my online friends, I realized that the 10 articles this company was asking me was highway robbery. Not that I'm being ungrateful but I finally understood that they were taking advantage of me. I mean I know that the situation that I presented to them which I am in right now does not warrant me any right to complain. But still!

December- I finally settled with Penster.fyi.ph and the owner of the company which gave it to me asked me to write their website an About Us page. In return he said he was going to give me an online business subcontracting writing jobs. He asked me to make a business plan which he was so impressed with by the way. Finally, my plan resulted to InWriters being born. Then recently he referred me to his business partner here in the Philippines. His partner gave me a job to write content for their front page and a translation job which i subcontracted to interested individuals.

This year I did not at all join the Ateneo Fiesta. I stayed home the whole week and that led me to the discovery of two web hosting companies.

The first ever Philippine Idol was crowned this year. Aside from watching the show every week and sometimes taking part in the voting process, I was also an active participant in the Philippine Idol forums. I even created a chat room for Philippine Idol fans since I saw some people were using the forum as a chat room. All these allowed me to find new friends.

What happened to me this 2006 renewed my interest in writing. It also sealed my belief that I can write. You see, I have had doubts on whether i can write at all. But with these offers coming in to write with pay is just so encouraging that I even revived this old blog of mine.

I can say that 2006 has been a fruitful year. True, I gained most of the weight I lost in 2005. But the fact that I was able to do it proves that I can do it again. That assurance is enough for me.

Many Injured Due to New Found Wealth

The stock market hit a near 9 month high as it closed for the year yesterday. The peso meanwhile surged 7% for the year. All these factors ushered in a lower than expected inflation rate for December which is pegged at 4%.

Amidst these good news in business, we are seeing the development of a not so good news. According to the DoH, 205 heard-headed Filipinos have been injured due to firecracker accidents. But still, is this 80% increase in firecracker related injury an indication that the improving economic state of the Philippines is finally being felt by the masses. I don't see any other reason why the statistics would suddenly go up. I mean sure, the DoH has slowed down its campaign but would that mean that Filipinos would forget what they were thought just a few years ago? After being shot in war torn Iraq, would a tourist go back there again?

The way I see it, new found wealth should be coupled with some teachings by the government. Just like China is now facing the problem of pollution, the Philippines would soon understand that the newly wealthy filipinos should be responsible for the problems they would bring about such as obesity, pollution, etc.

Terry Lim Cua: First 2 Millionaire of Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal

For the past few days ABS-CBN has been hinting on a two million winner on their game show Kapamilya, Deal or no Deal (Philippine version of Deal or no Deal). The first winner of 2 million in the game show was finally named tonight.

Terry Lim Cua, a bank teller (who earns 9 thousand a month) is now two million pesos richer. The man who was always a failure in love finally found luck in the game show.

terry's game started out badly. All the big numbers appeared early on the show. But in a drastic turn of events, all small numbers came out in the next rounds.

As the game was nearing its end, people were cheering and chanting the words: two million! The banker was clearly not happy with the way things were going as shown in the background.

At last, Cua decided to fight it all the way. kris was a bit disappointed that he didn't take the final offer of 'the banker' which is a million pesos. She claimed nobody would give you a million. Apparently, Terry believed that his life would be no different with or without the two million.

The game came to an end as Kris finally revealed what was inside briefcase 8. People cheered and were very congratulatory.

Kris ended the show sharing her line with Terry Lim Cua: Magkita-kita po tayo ulit dito sa Kapamilya, Deal or no Deal!

Mau to Become a Kapuso?

Mau Marcelo, the first Philippine Idol has been rumored to be wooed by GMA 7 to be a Kapuso. According to sources, GMA (which has the greater penetration in the Metro Manila area) is interested in Mau because she has captivated the hearts of some Kapuso.

If this rumor is true, this will be a win-win situation both for GMA 7 and Maureen Marcelo. We all know that ABC 5 (the network handling Mau) has not yet proven to have the ability to make a talent popular. In the past (during Philippine Idol), ABC 5 couldn't even use their radio station to broadcast Philippine Idol. We all saw how ABS-CBN pulled no stops in marketing Pinoy Dream Academy. GMA 7 meanwhile, can use Mau to rival the Birit Champions of ABS CBN.

We wish Maureen Marcelo, the first ever Philippine Idol the best of luck. Be it on ABS CBN or GMA, we hope Mau will be successful in her singing career.

Reluctant Nurses

Recently, the upsurge in the demand for nurses abroad brought about an unprecedented increase in the number of nursing students. The number of nursing students rose to the extent of overtaking 50% of a University's population. The top Philippine Universities even saw professionals going back to school just to cash in on the nursing rush.

The sole reason that so many are jumping on the nursing wagon is MONEY. Cold hard Dollars. if you ask today's nursing students why they want to be a nurse one day, two answers are prevalent: to be able to work abroad and to earn dollars. Sure one or two hypocrites might tell you they want to become a nurse because they want to take care of people but majority are really in it because they want to be rich.

Other nursing students are in it because:
1.) Their friends are all taking up nursing
2.) They are undecided on what direction to follow in life, so they take up the course ng bayan
3.) Their parents forced them
I for one am one of the people who took up nursing to work abroad and become rich. Actually my parents also forced me. I was about to become ideal again and pursue my dreams of becoming either a writer, web designer, psychiatrist, or a business man. None of those happened because I chose to be ideal (for a change). Unbeknownst to me, that sudden impulsive decision to become practical (now that's an irony!) would become my downfall.

Yes, dear friends. I am an unhappy nursing student as most nursing students are. We have all been forced into this black hole devoid of any freedom of expression. We have all been pushed into wells of desire of our parents!

Right now I should be taking tiny steps towards becoming either a successful young entrepreneur (like Donald Trump), a flourishing opinionated columnist, or an internet geek millionaire. Instead I am memorizing drugs, procedures, etc. *Sigh*

One day though, I hope that my spur of the moment decision to do something very rational would pay off. Someday, I hope to breath a sigh of relief and say buti na lang nag nursing ako.

Anyone else out there, suffering from this type of depression?

On Finally Realizing what Christmas is all About...

It's the 24th of December. Only around two hours before the clock strikes 12. We have just finished eating our Christmas dinner.

*Sigh* Christmas is not what it used to be. Gone are the butterflies which would usually set in on the eve of Christmas. Gone is that anxious-nervous feeling as I listen to the firecrackers getting louder by the hour outside. Worst of all, my brother is gone.

Yes, that is exactly what is missing this Christmas. My brother. Right now, he is somewhere in Manila answering a pathetic American's call.

Folks, I have come to realize exactly what Christmas means through the absence of my brother this Christmas. Family. For so long, I have never realized it. I thought it was the presents, the food, and the loot. But as it turns out, Christmas is all about the most fundamental foundation of our society.

I finally get it. It was all about our love ones in the first place. The merriment would never be there without the people doing it.

Well, around an hour to go before Christmas. Thank God my mom and dad are here.

Where have all the Parents gone?

It's Christmas 2006. The boy living next door is again going to spend Christmas with us. Why, you ask. Well, his mom and dad apparently can't make it back to the Philippines for the holidays. His dad is an engineer in Abu Dhabi and his mom is a nurse at a Saudi Arabian hospital. It has been years since his parents came back home. Communication was usually through text messaging and the internet. The boy is living a good life though. He has a swimming pool in his front yard, two maids, a huge house, and more money than he could ever spend in his entire lifetime. But the boy is sad. His only companion inside his huge empty house is his ailing grandmother.

Do you think this is a tragedy? No folks, this is a statistic so real that you only have to peek at those 'from rags to riches' type of people next door to get proof.

According to some sources, more and more Filipino households are without a parent these days. Some go as far as having only an extended relative living with their kids. This alarming trend has been dawning on us ever since the mass migration of Filipino farmers to Hawaii. The present poverty rate was the final catalyst that trigerred this huge social calamity.

Already we can feel the consequences of a parentless society. The rising number of drug addicts, teenage pregnancies and homosexuality are only a few of the negative results of this present trend. More and more men are becoming gay because of the lack of a strong male role model. Meanwhile the hormone hyped teenage girl and boy would result to drugs and sex to fill up their empty lives.

Folks, the facts presented in this article are not at all real. But it will be in the next few years if we don't stop this present upsurge of greed amongst ourselves. STOP MASS MIGRATION! STOP GREED!

See you all in the United States!