The Curse of the Black Pearls

After all those penny-pinching and trying to earn money from the Internet, I went ahead and bought myself a set of South Sea pearl earrings and necklace. I chose black pearls because they suit me better than the white ones. I bought them on installment (in my country, the term used is gives: two-gives, three-gives, etc., you get the drift) so I was able to get my jewelry immediately after I issued four post-dated checks to my boss' alahera (jeweller). I already completed the first two payments and I only have two more months to go. The problem is I've run out of funds so I decided that I will pull out my mutual fund investments. They're dollar bond funds and euro bond funds and I've held on to them for two years now. Although their NAVPS increased, I would still get negative profit because of the country's presently strong currency. Two years ago, the exchange rate was P54 to $1 and now it's P45 to a $1. This would translate to a net loss of a couple of thousand pesos so I think it would be wiser to just pull my investments out.

Postie blogs, Postie earns

I have long wondered how some people are able to become professional bloggers. I've been maintaining this blog for some time now and honestly, my earnings from the ads haven't even reached minimum payout. I guess those people who earn a substantial amount from blogging maintain lots of blogs and/or join group blogs where the revenues are divided by the members. But I don't have the time and resources to maintain lots of blogs. So I guess that's not for me.

The Country’s National Bookstore

Remember my gift certificates for National Bookstore which I planned to use to buy books by Kiyosaki at the annual cut-price book sale? Well the month-long sale has started and on its very first day, I trooped over to NBS to give myself a treat. But I didn't buy any Kiyosaki book. What I bought are these:

Egay, Edsa, Eboards

It's been raining hard all week due to supertyphoon Egay. And although the Philippines is not the one directly hit, the constant rain and heavy flooding were enough reasons to suspend classes in elementary, high school and college levels. Unfortunately, employees were not spared the trouble of going to work. I was even stuck in traffic for three hours last Wednesday. Good thing I had my digicam with me so I had something to amuse me while I trudged along Edsa, inch by excruciating inch:

Listen to your Inner Voice

What is it telling you? Is it saying 'You can do it!' or just the opposite? Most of us fall prey to our negative inner talk without even realizing it. I myself am guilty of this as I tend to become a worry-wart most of the time. The good news is, we have the capability to turn ourselves around. We can choose to focus on the positive instead of the negative, to turn something bad into something good. It's just a matter of changing perspectives really, I always remind myself of this. Maybe this forwarded email can help (and I hope it helps you too):

Watch my weight

140. For a 5'2" female, that's just slightly overweight. But try putting that in the Filipino context and that already translates to a Large size for a blouse and a pair of jeans with a waistline measurement bordering on the number of days on a calendar.

When Pag-IBIG does not mean love

I applied for a salary loan from the Home Development Mutual Fund, otherwise known as the Pag-IBIG Fund, and I still haven't been approved. The loan amount is based on a percentage of the total contribution amount. So I thought I can loan a big amount because I have been working for 7 years already. When I got the quote from them, I was baffled because they said that I have only 13 months worth of contributions in their records. Then I thought to myself, but this only equivalent to the length of time that I've been with my current employer!

5th, 6th and 7th

At last, I finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (6th Book in the Harry Potter series). I enjoyed this one and I can't wait to get my hands on the 7th book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Before reading the 6th book, I watched the 5th Harry Potter movie. It was not as fun to watch as the first three movies (not quite satisfied with the 4th movie either) and I remember I did not like the 5th book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so much either.