Straight From The Heart

On Copying my Blogs..

I have started my blog since May 2005. I began blogging during my early days here in the USA. There were just too many things I wanted to say but nobody to talk to that I always find myself turning to blogging.

I do admit that putting down  my thoughts into something amusing, informative and vivid is not always an  easy thing considering that I am not a native speaker of the English language. I always spend time rewriting and rewriting my posts especially the ones that I feel should be given more thought, because it is also my responsibility that I present my ideas as factual as possible. That is  the reason why I guess, I can never write something that I have no knowledge or experience of. That is the reason why I titled my blog, Straight from the Heart, because I write everything straight, no lies or pretensions, from the bottom of my heart.  I do not write just to write, I  put myself into it, with the objective that this post will somehow bring a smile to somebody's face, that it will bring information,and  that my friends will know what my thoughts are, or what is happening to me even if we're miles apart.

So it hurts me that some people grab some of my posts from my sites without nary a thought that they are infringing with my rights. They are what I call "Blog-Photocopiers" , "Blog-grabbers".  Do they think that these posts were written with just a wave of the  hand?  I wish I had a magic wand to be able to do that but I don't. I can't blame them though if they  find some of my posts amusing and they want to  share it with the world. The thing is , I wish they will give some respect to the author, and provide a link back to me.  So I am posting my  Copyright Policy , for all the blogs that I have created and  that is  "you are not allowed to copy whole post contents but only  excerpts of  about 50-100  words and the rest of the article  should be linked back to my page that you have copied.  You should also  provide my site's URL as source  as well. "

So there, should you wish to share my work through your own blogs:

1. you may only provide excerpts.
2. you have to link back to my site/ page that you have copied.
3. you have to put my site's page address as source .

I still have got  a lot to say but they are words better left unsaid.
 

Ten Things I'd Love to Say ...

Ten things I would love to say to the young and restless :

1. Love your parents (especially your mom) . It is your responsibility to take care of them as they have taken care of you. It is not right to say it's not your duty because it is. If it's not yours, whose is it then?
2. Put your families first before anything else, being a good daughter/son will give you good "karma".
3. It will not make you less of a person if your cellphone is not the latest model.
4. Think of your future, not of boyfriends and girlfriends, when the right time comes God will give you the one He has prepared for you.
5. Never get swayed by your peers. Just because they say it's okay doesn't mean it's true. If everybody smokes, it doesn't mean it's good for you. Just because your young friends are getting pregnant one by one doesn't mean they're in and you're out. You are the captain of your own ship, steer your ship to the right direction.
6. Pray, pray, pray, ask for God's guidance for then you will never be wrong. God loves those who love Him but more so if we sinned and we want to go back into His loving arms. Talk to him about everything you want to do, you want to accomplish, what your worries are, He won't mind it really coz He loves us , He created me and you so we're special , extraordinarily special :) ..
7. When your mom says it's wrong, 100 percent sure she's right..
8. Never be stupid and reckless with your actions. If you think it's not safe to be out at night, you're right, it's not. If something happens to you then there is no one to blame but you..
9. What is the point of having bf at a young age? They will just practice on you. They will kiss, hug and who- knows- what, so having them when you should be studying your lessons is not worth it. 
10. Please, don't marry early.. learn from our mistakes, look around you, there's still so much to do in life.. Help your parents, help a sibling or help yourself become a better you...

No offense meant to anybody okay? I just want to share my feelings since I see parents suffering coz of their children's stubborness, marrying early, getting pregnant, drugs , booze and so on and so forth. It just hurts me to see that when these kids  can still achieve so much in life rather than making these bad choices in their lives, almost always, they become a burden to their parents.

I know I'm  not perfect, I also did my share of giving my mother some headaches in the past ( to be specific, from age 29 till I was 32) and looking back, I wished I listened to her. There are some areas of my life that I wished I had listened to her and to what God's whispering voice is telling, rather than listen to the yearnings of my stupid heart.

To my younger cousins, friends and especially to my younger sister and bro, sa lahat ng mga single, make the best of your life, make good choices okay ? And makinig sa mga nanay, God cannot be everywhere that is why He gave us our mothers.

:)

Email me if you please...

Do you know those kind of people who add you up to their Friendster list and you sorta know each other, were friends before so you write them, asking how they are but they were never  kind enough to write you back ?   You know those who never even send you  a hi or hello , no matter how many emails you wrote them ? Personally, I think it is rude really. If I wrote you like twice, asking how you are, isn't it but proper to email me back ? This goes especially to some friendster friends who I have been emailing for like twice, to think that I was so excited to hear from them too but not even a hasty "Hi" did I get from them. It's sad because I see that they were able to login to Friendster everyday, that they have uploaded a photo for like everyday but they wouldn't even send a reply ? To think that we were former co-workers, we were dormmates or  the most hurting thing is , the person was one of my relatives yet she didn't even bother to answer my emails given the fact that she was online everyday or that she kept updating her profile and all. I think even if I was mad at somebody, I still would send back a short message. Just a simple "Hi , I got your email , thank you very much " would suffice. I would already be happy to know that yes, she got my message and yes, she's still alive somewhere in this big wide world. But most of all, I am happy that she sent me back a reply. It just kinda hurt that she was able to post a bulletin but not reply to my email excitedly asking how she's doing.

 

I Can't Edit My Templates !!!

What's wrong with this Friendster Blog? It's been an hour ago and I still cannot edit my template designs no matter how many times I click the buttons. Just because I have my complaints about this paid blog doesn't mean they have to sabotage me, huh?

Hmm, is this one of Friendster's scheduled maintenance again? But why can I still post and edit every part of my site except the template designs? Hmm, what's up with you Friendster?

Ay-yay-yay-yay-yay... What rotten luck I have really.

Is it just me or is there somebody else out there having the same problem with Friendster?   

My Upgraded Friendster Blog

Noticed the new look of my blogsite? The new look and new design are all because I recently upgraded to a paid Friendster blog. It's 89.95 a year and I have paid it in full right away. I know I kinda got carried away again when there are lots of free blog-hosting sites that I could have gone to but then no, I just want to spend my hard-earned money and make Friendster 90 dollars richer .  :)

To make myself feel better and not be guilty about what I did, (yes I do feel bad and guilty when I think about what my $ could have done to help the poor kids in my beloved Philippines) , I keep telling myself that spending that money for the whole year for this hobby of mine isn't all that bad, right ?? Anyway, it's less than ten dollars a month if you will think about it, right ? Aw, really now? It's not working though. My guilty conscience and the miser in me is telling me to go bang my head on the wall.

A refund is not an option though because Friendster will not issue a refund definitely. They aren't nuts and if you're in, you're in. My fault actually because I did not try to read up on its features first and now I know, or I was stupid not to know, that even if this blog has been made public after the upgrade , nobody can comment on an entry but a member of the Friendster community.

But anyway now, since I cannot opt  for a refund, I will just try to discover and try to enjoy what my New Paid Friendster Blog will do for me. After the upgrade, I discovered that okay I can now embed HTMLs like videos into my posts. With the paid blog, I can painstakingly  make my own customized design as you can see now, and my site will be ad-free,  and I can add widgets ( but widgets I think can also be used with  the ad-supported Friendster blog)  and ...uh.....what else....... ??? I wanna wrack my brain but honestly I don't know what else ... ( Argghh.. ) I spend most of my time trying to navigate through Friendster's Blog User Manual so I can have an idea of what more it can give me but I am still in the dark. I'm in a very dark area of this whole blogging thing honestly. I hope if you know something else that I can do with my blog, what else I can do with it, do send me a comment or type in your message in my chatbox, please

So this is what I have been doing for the last few weeks of October, getting busy with my ALL NEW, FULLY (PAID?) Upgraded Friendster Blog, amidst doing my housechores of course, and the baby whining for hug , and the husband complaining about me being so busy with my PC that is. 

Now you know what I have been doing, what I'm going through with my new Friendster blog, know that everything you see in my new blog is a product of my tears, sweat, and mostly of my shaking hands ,that could be a candidate for  CTS if I will not be careful .

So please tell me you like my all-new, upgraded Friendster blog, pleezz?

Somebody Copied my Post

Hmp, somebody copied one of my blog entries and reposted it in his own site. That wasn't nice of him huh? How could he do that ? After I labored and slaved to compose that entry and he just copied and pasted it ? What nerve and gall !

My younger bro who knows things like these told me that the culprit probably did not copy and pasted my entry but rather he used a software which grabs posts from other blogsites and it was indeed true as I saw the software's site.

Anyway, the website says that they are not infringing on copyright laws because blogs are public, but so are all the other websites on the internet since everybody can view them, can copy or paste them as they please, right ? If everybody will be using this software which copies posts or entries from sites by just typing in a keyword, the web will be full of the very same, word for word copy of a certain blog entry, article or item and it would be overly tiring to search for something and ending up with multiple duplications. Hmp, these people, why can't they just do something more noble with their brilliant minds if they are indeed that smart ? 

As of this moment , I really don't know what to do about it but this site that I found is offering some tips on what to do when someone copies your content. I still have to read it though.

Just a reminder too for people who have this penchant for copy- pasting, please don't do it. Those are not your work and thus you do not have the right to post it to some other sites. I will also be revising some entries that I made here since some of them has some copied texts since I wanted to be as accurate as possible when I am stating something very important like USCIS fees, so I copied and pasted some articles. I still have to check if they gave the public the permission to reprint it.  But  as advised by my brother, one can only quote a certain part of these copied texts but not copy the article in its entirety.

To Add or Not to Add..

To add or not to add, that is the question my friend...

No, I am not talking about adding my expenses or whatever, it has something to do about adding friends here in Friendster.

When somebody tries to add me up to their "friendslist", if truth be told, I am thrilled to be given such invitation. I want to have a lot of friends but sadly, I don't think I should add just about anybody for the sake of having over 500+ friends in my list.

These are some of the people who I have second thoughts of adding to my friendslist :

~ people who post indecent pictures, nude, semi-nude photos, pictures with butts and boobs exposure ... ( If you're too proud of yourself that you are so sexy, so hot and all, why not distribute your pics in a porn site... ) 

~people who grab other profiles' nude pictures ... ( something is wrong with this kind of person )

~people whom I truly don't know and I feel that the person just wants to have a multitude of "friends" in their list..

~people whose personality is too unlike me.. ( what is the point of adding each other? )

~people who have trash words in their profile like the gangster and bitching kind of words ...

~people who don't post their real pictures ... ( I wouldn't know who I'm being friends with , right? It may be Nadine Samonte's pictures, or KC Cuneta's , or Michael V's but it's not really them. If that person is hiding under these famous people's identity , ah, forget it I don't need pretenders in my list ..)

~people who are just in the network to advertise their websites or worst, their porn sites...( get out of here !!!)

~men who have a majority of girls in their list ...( seems to be just collecting girls' profiles for fun)

( this list will grow in time ...)

Forgive me if I think I will not be adding up these kind of people in my list. I deserve to have better and decent friends in my list...

Friendster Boo-boo..

Noticed something wrong in the picture? No,  it's not John's pictures being cut in half.  It's  my Friendster profile's recent updates last August 2. It seemed I added a new friend, about 38 years ago...

Requirements Girls Should Ask from Guys...

These are my personal list of what we girls should be asking from guys before we give them the sweetest " yes " ...

1. CENOMAR from the Statistics office ( para sure na binata )
2. NBI clearance ( baka ex-convict or baka may existing kaso )
3. Birth certificate ( baka nagpapanggap lang sya na isa syang Zobel de Ayala )
4. School records/ Diploma ( may tinapos ba? mahirap ang mag asawa ng walang tinapos or walang pinag aralan, lumalabas ang pagkatanga nyan , matu-turn off ka lang hehehe )
5. Letter from employer ( may work ba? secure na ba ang job?)
6. Copies of pay stubs  ( baka minimum pay lang ?)
7. Letter from Character references ( baka mga just-just lang kakilala mo ? )
8. Bank certificates  ( meron ka man lang bang savings ha ?)
9. Land Titles or  Proof of Ownership of anything ( baka drawing lang yang mga ari-arian na yan ha ? )
10. Medical/Physical/STD exam result ( baka may AIDS ka iho ?)   
11. Lie Detector test result ( mag undergo ng rigid questioning, baka may pagka liar )
12. Psychological Test result (baka praning or may lahi, bigla na lang magsalita ng walang kausap or bigla ka na lang habulin ng itak when he gets jealous )
13. Credit report ( baka kabi-kabila utang mo, di kaya ? )

What else, girls? Can you think of other things that we should ask from suitors before we even fall for them ? Maybe we should include a resume, an application form, application fee, security deposit ?

Hehehe....

===============================================================

This post has been revised. I actually have second thoughts of publishing it here since it may offend the guys who may happen to read my blogs but it's just you know, wishful thinking or maybe I just want to rant about men again ? I think I am becoming a man-hater again, I wonder what triggered that ??? ....

:)

Marital Woes...

Not too much in the mood yet to write anything but I have  a lot of questions in my mind tonight like...

..why do people have to get married ?

...why does a spouse change after you marry him ?

...how can somebody you love be so irritating sometimes ?

...how can somebody who says he loves you be so uncaring at the same time ?

...why does the wife have to do all the household chores ? Is she his mother and maid rolled into one ???

...how does a wife keeps her cool with all the infuriating things her husband does ?

...how do you keep the music playing ??? este, how do you keep the love alive when you feel you're just being used ???   

...am I the only one who feels this helplessness, frustration, rage ???

So many questions but the answers are too few, goes the song.. Ganito ba talaga ang may asawa?  Sana may pumigil sa min nong sinabi naming "we're getting married" .....  :)

But hay naku, I don't know. Maybe I am wrong, maybe all marriages are like this.  I don't know really, since this is my first time to be married but who knows the second time will be better ?? hahahahh, I am definitely just kidding but I believe marriage for the first time is a mistake, the second one will be utter stupidity :)

Hay buhay may-asawa, parang buhok, minsan magulo, minsan ayos na ayos ....

P. S.

Don't worry, I have no intentions of divorcing my  husband, nagtatanong lang po mga ate, kuya ...

For all his faults and flaws, after careful consideration, I decided that my husband is one for keeps, kahit nga kung minsan eh talagang kakainis sya to the max ...

Money Doesn't Grow on Trees Here ...

Money doesn't grow on trees here ...

Yes, that is true. Before, when I was in the Philippines, I used to think that people who live in America never run out of money ... Hahahah, yeah that is true, I mean I thought before that they never have any problems financially. Then I came here. I see my fellow Filipinos working two jobs a day just to make both ends meet. I see them work hard, because they have mortgages, car bills, utility bills, insurance, property taxes and lots more of things to pay for and not enough money. Some are in the brink of bankruptcy because they are suddenly laid off from work and had credit cards debt pile up. Some have two mortagages to pay for. Some are going to sell their homes to transfer to an apartment since they just can't pay the bills anymore. I see old people working at Walmart, or babysit someone's kid, or take care of elderly people when she in fact should also be retiring.  And it is sad that their relatives in the Philippines do not know that. They think money grows on trees here, that the streets are gilded with gold. They think that the money being sent to them was not "pinagpaguran" which is really sad. They don't know that we really work hard to earn that money, "dugo't pawis yan".

Well I know , not all Filipinos are hard-up as some that I have mentioned. Maybe some are living pretty comfortable lives here like the Filipina nurses but not all are lucky, not all of our kababayans who come here are highly-paid like the nurses. Not all have high-paying jobs.

So if you have families, relatives over here, take it easy when you ask for "help". I am very lucky to say that my family and relatives never ask anything from me, coz they know my situation but not everybody has families like mine. I hear stories from my coworkers when they help a relative, another one will go calling to ask too. And more sad because they are asking for money to buy a cellphone. I mean is that a need ?  It's just sad you know, we also have our problems here and we have nobody to turn to unlike when we are in our own country. Well, of course, all Filipinos would want to help out their families and relatives, send money, send all the little things we have here  but sometimes we can't.. We want and we will, but give us a little more consideration.. Don't ask money from your Auntie from 'Tate just to buy the latest cellphone model ..Don't ask money from your Uncle if you will just be wasting it on booze..it's just not fair because money doesn't grow on trees here.

 

Mga Kaeng-engan sa USA

Hay naku, after a long day at work, eto pagdating sa bahay, kuha ng mails si Husband. Pagbukas nya ng isang sobre, andun, may penalty daw kami kasi nagbayad ng late sa rent.

"What, totoo ba yang sinasabi mo ?? Patingin nga .." and there nabasa ko nga na may penalty na $25.00 . Bumunot ako ng matinding buntong hininga bago ako nagsalita...

" Are they kidding me ?? Anong late ang sinasabi nila na nagbayad nga tayo ng a-kwatro, at hindi after the 5th. And nung a-uno pa nga dapat kaso yung manager nila na inassign dito eh laging wala sa office !! Kung after the 5th tayo nag bayad eh yun ang may penalty "

"Bakit nila tayo ipepenalty if we paid them before the 5th. Wag nga nila tayong pinagluluko, kesyo ba Pinoy tayo ?? We're not fools you know " .

Pagtingin ko sa date when they encashed our check, it was on the 17th. Kya siguro chinacharge kami ng late fees. Eh kasalanan ko ba if they encashed it on the 17th when we gave it to them on the 4th ??? Sus me, kakagigil ha? Minsan a-uno pa lang, nagbibigay na kami ng upa but it will take them about 3 weeks to encash our payment tapos now kami pa ang ipepenalty ? Mga hunghang ba sila ?? Husband told me that things like this happens, not just to us .

" But this is America,  Ney . Di ba dapat matatalino mga tao dito ? Ano ba to, kala ko the best na ang mga andito, simpleng simple lang di muna nila idouble check their copy of the receipts bago nila sabihing late ito, charge natin tong renter na to. "

Baka naman kasi mga highschool graduate na naman lang ang mga office staff ng opisinang ito kaya may pagka eng eng? Hay  naku, humanda sila pag nagpunta ako sa office nila, I have proofs you know. Ayaw na ayaw ko pa naman nagagalit, sabi nga ni Incredible Hulk, "please don't make me angry, you won't like me when I'm angry..... "

And di pa dyan natatapos ang mga kapalpakan ng araw na to...

Eto pa, I checked my bank transactions, sabi dun ng isang item, CUSTOMER WITHDRAWAL ... $10.00. Di ako mapakali so I called the customer service, sabi nagwithdraw daw ako sa Concord Salvio. Huh? Ako nag withdraw eh di ko pa nga nagagamit tong atm card na to sa kahit anong ATM machine?? Ano yun, nagwithdraw ako na tulog ? As in I swear, di ko pa nga to natetest kahit sa anong ATM machine kasi hiya ako na magtry hahahha...(now you know ) I tried calling the Salvio branch but it was already closed. So eto ako ngayon, till now, iniisip ko pa what exactly happened there. As in pati tuloy ako gusto kong magduda na baka nga nag withdraw ako pero never eh, sure ako.. I have some cash and checks to deposit but we don't have the time to go to the bank yet so di talaga ako nagpunta dun.

Hay naku, hay naku , bakit kayo ganyan ??? Ang ganda ganda ng uwi ko biglang pumangit ang gabi ko.

Kaya Pilipinas, di ka nag iisa... Kung may mga nakakainis na mga pangyayari dyan, dito sa pinaka the best na bansa ng mga Amerikano eh meron ding mga kapalpakan. 

Update Jan 23, 2006:

- The bank made an error so they put the $10.00 back to my account.

- The apartment manager will not charge us of any late payments and was sorry for their mistake..

Sus me, kung di pa pala kami magreklamo eh.. ano ba yan ??? 

Medical Bills...

Just when I thought I can finally rest my mind from the bills coming in, my hand held another one from John's doctora when he had his shots. My gas, aapat lang na immunization shots $170? May insurance pa yan huh? Hay naku, ano ba naman? Di ko pa nga nababayaran yung doctor's fee na $116 nung nag emergency si Mr. Bocito Jr, eh eto na naman yung isa. At iba pa dyan yung binayaran kong emergency fee amounting to $375 huh ?  Pedialyte lang ang binigay sa anak kong nagsusuka at nagtatae eh magbill ba naman sa min ng 5oo dollars something? Buti na lang may Blue Cross insurance so medyo bumaba sa $375.00. Mantakin nyo yung pedialyte eh ten dollars lang yata tapos ganon kalaki ang bill ??? Simpleng pagtatae lang at pagsusuka na eto naman si Mama Chari eh may- I- sugod naman sa emergency yun pala pedialyte lang ang remedy. Kakatawa di ba ? Umabot sa $491.00 simpleng simple lang ang gamot?

Imaginin nyo na lang kung talagang yung matitinding mga sakit ang tumama at kelangan magstay sa hospital ng several days , gaano na kaya kataas ang babayaran ko nun? Hinde, hindi ko maimagine. I hope and I pray nobody in my family gets into any serious ailment kasi sobrang taas ng healthcare cost dito , di ko carry :(

Kaya dito sa US ang slogan eh " we can't afford to be sick" .  Sa Pilipinas ang translation nyan eh, "bawal ang magkasakit"  . Tama di ba, Senator Legarda?

It's Been Awhile

Hello friends,

It's been awhile since my last post and I have a lot of stories to tell. First up is that it's tooooo hot here in California , as in really hot!!! It's even hotter here compared to our summer there in the Philippines. Uh-uh, comparing again eh ? I know but just can't help it. I can't even say it's warm. It really is hot here than there. I always thought that it would be cooler here but to my dismay, ackkk, mas mainit pa pala dito ???!!! To help you experience how it is,  try  turning a hairdryer on and let it blow on your face and that's how intense the heat here is. Thanks to the airconditioning though, people don't have to suffer that much. They will just suffer from the high cost of their electric bill hehehe....

Next up is why I was unreachable(?) during these past weeks. The reason is that I took a babysitting job at our friend's house. I just worked there for a month and last Friday was my last day. Not my decision though, but maybe God willed it to happen so I will have time to look for a better job. Some things happen for a purpose, right?

Lots of stories to tell about my little imp, aka John the little drunken master hahahah... We jokingly call him that coz he just learned to walk when he reached his tenth month and if you have seen a baby who's just learning to walk, you'd agree with me.

Okay so this would be all for now. I will update you again of the  latest "happenings" next time...

CHARI