Learning to Play the Guitar

I’m not just sports-minded and fully-techy. I’m also very fond of music including playing some musical instruments like the guitar. When I was a lot younger, I had the chance to pursue my interests in playing the piano and guitar but I blew it. I wasted the chance.

I lost my interest in playing even if my wife plays the keyboard and the guitar. It was fine with me to just watch her play. Until recently when I gave my commitment to be involved in the ministry, I saw the need to learn and I experienced the enjoyment there is when jamming with a friend who’s into guitar playing too.

I needed to catch up. I played slowly and I just felt I needed to learn as quickly as I could. The problem: I am a very busy person and enrolling in a music school is not my option. My wife teaches from time to time but for a very limited and crazy schedule, learning can never be as easy as pie.

One thing that contributed to my ease of playing and more harmonious execution of chords is through jamming with my wife and a friend. I have to admit though that the best solution for my acquiring a more sufficient ability has always been the internet. Whenever I want to play a certain song, I would google search the lyrics and chords. After printing a copy, I would go to http://www.youtube.com, search for the song and right from there, I learn to play from different sites that offer tutorials.

Truly, the internet can be very helpful in almost everything you intend to have knowledge of. The learning process by way of internet can be a very delightful experience especially for those who don’t have the time to enroll in a regular class.

Restoring Your Favourite Black Shoes

Comfortable is a very nice word even for the most formal events you’re invited to. That’s why I make sure that when I shop for shoes, they must be comfortable and can take me to whatever place I want to be. Of course, the shoes need to be presentable as well, and applicable to a particular situation, whether it is semi-formal, formal, sporty or casual.

There will always be one particular pair of shoes that you find hard to dispose of. It sure happened to me. I have a pair of black shoes that I haven’t worn for years and still, it looked like new when polished.

I used it when I attended a wedding just recently and that was the time I noticed the shoes needed to undergo some serious repairs.

I got into the dilemma of whether to have the shoes repaired or just buy a new one. Events after events are lined up for the two more remaining months of the year. I have another wedding coming up, Christmas parties, Christening, etc.

My attachment to the shoes prevailed after much serious deliberations. One of the most reliable shoe shops you can go to for all your shoe repair needs is Mr. Quickie. I have brought quite a number of shoes there for repairs. My wife even had some of her bags done in this shop. Depending on the amount of repair needed for a job, the fee is just all right. We go there also when we need our keys duplicated.

Furthermore, they added important services like unlocking locks, opening cars when you left your keys, home service and many more. Overall, I am satisfied with their service.

When Dogs Have Stomach Trouble

Our younger dog got hospitalized and was confined for almost a week in an animal hospital. He got sick of a parasite infestation that compromised his immune system. What further caused his almost near-death situation was when he was overdosed with anti-fever medicine which affected his liver and turned him yellowish.

That was one of our saddest moments with our dogs because we thought we would lose him. His medicines were given via dextrose and he wouldn’t eat if only the hospital staff would feed him. He would just cry a lot when it’s time for us to leave him with a look that to us expressed his desire to go home already. He even had to be transfused with blood that would come from miles away. We thanked God that he recovered without a need for a blood transfusion.

The consequence of this illness is that today, he has weak digestion. Every now and then he would have stomach trouble. He eats well but when he reaches a point that he is so filled up, he would vomit everything he ate and we could hear the thunderous gurgitation of his stomach. When our first dog wouldn’t eat, what we did was to give him Yakult. This was an advice from their veterinarian.

Today, whenever our dog has stomach trouble, we would walk him out of the house and wait until he vomits. Then, however hard it is for us to make him drink Yakult, we give him using a syringe. Yakult is not just for humans, it’s for the dogs too!

A Wedding At 5AM

Very recently, my wife and I were invited to a wedding of a local TV host/reporter. The strictly all-black attire is not quite surprising to me because I’ve seen some weddings with an all-black motif. What astonished me a little bit was the schedule of the wedding which was to start at sunrise: 5-AM.

I also heard a wedding or two that started at five in the morning. Nevertheless, having to attend a wedding like that myself was rather new to me so I needed to make a lot of adjustment especially due to the fact that I have a very irregular sleeping habit. Another problem with this schedule had been the absence of a helper to take care of house chores before we go out.

My wife and I both agreed on doing some adjustments so that we could at least enjoy some hours of sleep instead of the original plan to just stay up until five AM. Two days before the wedding, we made sure that everything that had to be brought to the wedding was already prepared. The night before the wedding, my wife prepared the food for our two huge dogs. Additionally, I imposed upon myself the discipline of not facing the computer longer just for that particular night.

I am not the kind that could go to sleep immediately when I position myself in bed but I needed to try.

It’s a good thing that right after setting the alarm at 3:30 AM and around thirty minutes of TV time, I snoozed. Still, we woke up at one in the morning and failed to go to sleep again.

For many, a problem like this is not quite a problem at all. For those who could hardly get up early and start for the door and leave to attend a sunrise wedding, the solutions I mentioned might help. But then again, there are other things that could work according to one person’s preference, attitude, habits and biological clock.

House Help Needed

We needed to let go of our helpers, one for disciplinary reason and the other to grant his desire to seek better opportunities in a capital city. They had been with us for so many years that we treated them as family already, hence, we needed to do a lot of adjustments when we realized that acquiring workers we could trust has been one of the most difficult things to do.

We have been so used to having people to work for us for the longest time. Why not hire? Well, we’ve tried to pass the word around that we were in need of at least one helper. The problem that I see why someone refuses to work for us is our “two huge bullmastiffs.”

People are scared of our dogs!

In this generation of high technology and modernized world, we can actually do without a helper. For the mothers, they can teach their kids to take part in the house chores and they can do it with much fun.

This website may help for this purpose:
http://www.findananny.net/blog/10-ways-to-make-chores-fun-for-kids/

This website teaches ten ways to make chores fun for kids. For simple do-it-yourself around the house, this website is good: http://www.diy.com

In addition, there are many websites these days that can teach how to take care of big dogs, where to go for a certain need, and how to cook almost everything.

It is a known fact in our society that helpers are indispensable because we rely on them to carry out extra chores for our family. Nonetheless, absence of a house aide can train family members to become responsible, creative, diligent, wise and resourceful.

Networking Is My Business

I have been managing my own business for years. Having a rice land and a fishpond can be a very lucrative industry however, there were many factors, including those controllable and beyond control, that made agricultural businesses take a downturn and from experience, I suffered much loses.

For those really big-time players in the agricultural trade, they may not have been affected at all, but for many like me who didn’t have all the highly modernized machineries to soar and make the most of the gifts of the lands, there had to be a fall back.

Filipinos are said to be good in networking. I never trusted networking before, hence my firm refusal to join this industry. When a relative from Fern, Inc. approached me, I signed up but only because I’ve heard a lot about Fern C already. My family used this vitamin C and since then, I’ve entrusted the health of my family to it. After several months, I found myself doing the business of networking. Fern, Inc. ushered me into the networking or MLM business.

Today, aside from attending to my family business which is agricultural in nature, I also enjoy doing networking. This business gave me the additional income I needed. In addition, I became more conscious of the health issues that I need to face. My networking company has all the health and wellness products that I and my family can ever trust for life.

Fern, Inc has become a multi-billion company that it is today. Because of this, I feel that my long wait has been rewarded because of the creation of its sister company which is Fern International or I-Fern.

I now have the chance to earn not just in peso but also in dollars. For your health and business needs, I advise that you visit these websites: http://www.fern-inc.com and http://www.i-fern.com

You Version

I am not a religious person. I want to say I am passionate about my personal relationship with God. For any relationship to flourish, there need to be constant communication and the many usual ways to make it grow.

Just like anybody who loves the Lord so much, my means to constantly communicate with God is through prayers. His presence is one of the most genuine and beautiful existence I could think of in my life. When I pray, it is very personal and intimate.

The other ways that I use to make my relationship with God consistently healthy is through daily devotion - that is reading His Word and meditating on it. I sing songs of praise and thanksgiving and have regular fellowship with my friends at church. The challenge comes when I become very busy to even read a verse or two of the Bible.

Thanks to the internet because there are quite a lot of devotionals that cater to specific needs of every Christian. I spend a lot of time in front of the computer as well as using my mobile phone. The nice thing about gadgets is that I could bring them anywhere and anytime I need to read to feed my spiritual hunger. Devotionals are readily accessible.

Some of the most organized and popular Christian websites that offer great reads and biblical knowledge that certainly helped me are http://www.youversion.com, http://www.cbn.com, http://www.christianity.com

There are also many websites from which you can also download free e-books like http://www.bjnewlife.org

There are a lot of websites you could go to actually for your spiritual needs. These are just a few of my favourites.

More Secure Payment Scheme

Almost all of the transactions done via the internet need some form of payment and the most usual method is by the use of credit cards. This can be very convenient but considering the fact also that there are many unscrupulous activities being done when credit cards are involved, how can you have peace of mind and trust that you can avoid being a victim of such deceitful schemes?

I myself had been a victim of credit card scam. A huge bill had been credited to my card when in fact, I did not purchase any of the merchandise ever before. What I did was to call my credit card issuer immediately and explained my predicament. I got lucky because the company was able to track down the transaction that created the anomaly.

Nowadays, most of the business transactions are being made using the internet. Eventually, credit cards will be the method of payment because of its convenience. However, there will always be hesitations when it comes to giving their credit card information to websites that are still struggling when it comes to credibility. Like me for example, I need to find a way to avail of a more secure payment scheme.

In answer to this, I started using Paypal although this isn’t the only one of this kind that you could use for your financial transactions through the net. For me though, this is by far, the most convenient and trustworthy scheme I have tried. The methodology for acquiring a Paypal account is simple and is explained clearly from their website: http://www.paypal.com

On Coffee And Headaches

Coffee enthusiasts vary in their preferences when it comes to how they want their coffee done. Different coffee mixes have been perfected through the years because of humanity’s natural love for coffee. Coffee concoctions are so in style and there seems to be no end to mixers inventing new mixes to stay on top of the business.

I and my wife have different tastes for coffee. My wife’s coffee doesn’t have anything in it - no sugar nor creamer - just plain hot water and coffee. Mine is perfect with brown sugar and non-dairy creamer. My wife takes coffee daily for a reason – to relieve headache. Life’s many challenges include having to deal with headache.

For some, this is just a simple problem but to many, this is one illness that can torture for life. Headaches are actually one of the most common health problems that affect millions of people.

My wife has cluster headache which is a type of headache characterized by a piercing pain. This type frequently crops up on one side of the head in exactly the same place whenever there’s an attack. Cluster headache can stay on a regular basis for several days or weeks at one time and just swiftly fade away.

Headaches, especially when at its severity can hinder a person from performing regular tasks. When this happens, what is the best way to do?

Here are some solutions that could help:

Rest – if it’s not really necessary for you to go out, then stay in bed and make even your chores wait until you feel better.

Take a paracetamol or acetamenophen – in my wife’s case, this is not enough. Excedrin and
Panadol are the medicines that worded well during her bouts of migraine headaches but since these are not available in our country, she would instead drink biogesic and coffee.

Panadol has caffeine and acetaminophen as its ingredients. Excedrin has caffeine, acetaminophen and aspirin as its main ingredients.

Drink a bottle of Gatorade.


There are many ways you could relieve yourself of headache. In all the solutions that I’ve tried, one thing remains..coffee is the best for most of my headache issues.

It Pays to be Early

It pays to be early in everything. All the people around you may have been so used to coming late and doing things later in the day, but it always pays to be on the dot. However, there will always be times when the crazy attitude and behavior of the people you come in contact with everyday for various reasons will affect you in any way, either you get completely annoyed or worse, you emulate them.

I am a city dweller who has been trained all my life to be on time and be a hater of “Filipino time” attitude. Well, yes..I fail sometimes and I am fully aware that there will always be instances when I will be late, but it doesn’t need to be a way of life. There are many missed opportunities when people come late and I have experienced some obvious ones like missed freebies, missed income, missed trips, etc.

I believe that if there are no credible and acceptable reasons for being late, I should do everything to come on time..or it becomes my habit. I know, because there were successive times in the past when I seemed to have “enjoyed” coming late too. It’s good that I came to my senses in no time and resolved that I would make all efforts to avoid being late except when a situation arises that being late becomes unavoidable.

At a time, when I noticed that I wasn’t already trying my best to avoid being late, I became conscientious. Being habitually late is a negative attitude that will not benefit me. I adjusted my watch way earlier that the actual time. I also exercised a lot and it helped overcome my sluggishness. I made a record of things that I categorized as urgent, important and less important. Since then, I regained my record as being the most punctual in every gathering.

Deal with Stress

Many people die young these days. A relative of mind died in his early 30’s. A friend passed
away in his late twenties. Another from my batch in high school died in his mid 40’s. I think that the main culprit in their acquiring diseases that led to their early death is STRESS!

Stress makes people seriously ill. The orientation of your DNA which is the building blocks of life gets distorted when you are consistently exposed to extremely stressful life situations. DNA malfunction results to different forms of cancer, all kinds of diseases and abnormalities and eventually, death.

Stress is a serious thing. It can definitely kill you. My blood pressure rises when I am stressed out. I’m taking medicines to maintain my blood pressure. Aside from maintenance medicines, I made up my mind to change my lifestyle, choice of food and do a lot of things to de-stress.

Anti-stress tablets are now actually available even without a doctor’s prescription. Another thing you can do is to avoid watching horror and extremely suspenseful movies. I watch comedy or love stories. Overall, how do I deal with stress successfully?

First, I look for a place where I can be alone and shout the loudest so I could get rid of those heavy loads off my chest. Next, I cry if I need to because despite being a man, I believe that crying is a healthy activity.

Another way, I found out, that is good in beating stress is to talk to somebody close to me. I talk to God in prayer. In addition to all these, I also think about wonderful things that make me happy. I also recommend acquiring a pet. Through the years, I also found out that bible reading coupled with praying is one of the best ways to fight stress.

Huge Dogs, Huge Happiness

Dog is man’s best friend – a very familiar expression which to me is very true. I have always been a dog lover. I had a beautiful German Shepherd when I was a young boy. I have known from experience that dogs are like humans – they have emotions.

I remember full well how my bullmastiff became very agitated when I became overly emotional over a particular situation. They show different emotions for their various needs. Their body language too, speaks for themselves. My dog’s tail sways vigorously when he becomes overly happy whenever I arrive at home. That means “dog food”.

I go for huge dogs because they give me huge happiness. Life becomes a lot more challenging when your wife doesn’t want succeeding dogs to be as huge as our present pets. She wants smaller, or to be exact very small dogs! I never had small dogs. We need to resolve this because I am now dreaming of getting another huge dog in addition to my two right now.

When disagreements like this occur between husband and wife, we cannot say, “We will cross the bridge when we get there.” Planning is needed because dogs are like humans being born in the family. Right now, my wife loves our two huge dogs very much, but she made up her mind not to have another like them in the future because of the emotional attachment she develops with these nice creatures. She could hardly tolerate sadness at the thought of losing them someday.

The best solution we found for this life’s little challenge is to take a break and not really think about acquiring any pets yet. We decided at the moment that we will just give our best to reciprocate the loyalty of our dogs by giving them love and care.

I Hate Vinegar

I grew up hating the smell as well as the taste of vinegar. I know this is unusual because a lot of people love vinegar. They use it as a spice to enhance the taste of food, as main or minor ingredient for sauces and salads and as home remedy for some house troubles. Vinegar is used in many recipes and I love to eat, hence, my admission that I could not really avoid eating food with vinegar. Nonetheless, I would certainly say no to a particular food that smells of vinegar which is shouting that this acidic flavouring is present. If it is to be taken alone or if something is obviously vinegar-enhanced, I refuse to eat.

When my wife learned of this “vinegar” thing during the early stages of our marriage, she
couldn’t understand. We fought a lot because there were foods that need to be cooked with
vinegar and for a working wife it was hard for her to cook additional food because it takes a lot of valuable time for a working wife just to prepare the ingredients needed before finally firing up the stove.

How did we resolve this situation? At first it was hard because she found it bizarre that her vinegar-containing sauce should be placed far away from me when we were the only two persons around the table. Yet, as time went by, she became accustomed to the arrangement.

She also learned to substitute other ingredients for vinegar in certain recipes but if this is not possible at all, she makes sure that the amount of vinegar she adds in is very minimal and totally unnoticed. The best substitute for vinegar is apple cider vinegar. Still, I won’t eat this so other non-vinegar substitution my wife uses is lemon or calamansi.