Further the dreams of the young and talented

Guess who I am with this morning? Yasmin Kurdi. Yes, I just met a celebrity today. For more than a month now, I started a daily regimen of at least 30 minutes exercise to control my blood sugar and prevent the dangers of insulin resistance. Fortunately today, I went to the gym a bit early and chanced upon Yasmin who was so gracious to answer my nosy questions. We were gasping for dear breath (it was obvious in me because i'm quite not so young) while at the treadmill running and talking, but it was a nice conversation.

Now, why was the title? Told her I've known her through the StarStruck reality TV competition, she continued she actually started showbiz very young as a model, then joined various competitions of which she did not win. In my thought she made it through from a very young age. She added she got her mother and grandmother supporting her while still struggling to be known in Philippine show business. I sensed she has a good heart when in passing she expressed she gave her Mother and Lola a house where they can live.

I would like to share with  you another story of a young and talented child. In our province, I met a family of seven blessed with intelligent youngest child. He is now on his third year high-school and struggling to finish school due to financial difficulties. By the way, I am not bragging, but I started financing his yearly tuition fee (amount is not that big) when he started high-school. During that time, he just graduated from elementary and received a second place award. I guess when I told his family that I will help, he was motivated to excel even more. From then, I learned he is always top of his class.

The feeling of seeing people succeed in life is truly awesome. Who you like to help and inspire today, may well be the one helping others tomorrow. God bless!

Jobs for Talented Filipino Virtual Assistants

My heart's desire is to help my fellow Filipinos learn the opportunities that the internet revolution offers. In the Philippines we have lots of unemployed honest, industrious, talented and good people who like their family get a better life and later on contribute to their community specially in the provinces with lots of people who for the longest time have been experiencing hardships. I am together with you in that quest that is why I started researching on various ways to help, one of which is through blogging to share what I learned.

In October 2012, one blogpost here about Virtual Assistant (VA)  provided several sites where you can create an account. Today, I would like to share with you another website (www.onlinejobs.ph) looking to hire Filipino VAs (full-time or part-time work) for their partners in the US, Australia, Singapore, Canada, UK and other English speaking companies. Basic requirement is a good command of english, a computer and an internet connection as you will be required to work online. Filipino jobseekers will not be leaving the Philippines to work abroad, but instead will be working from home (or possibly from an internet cafe) doing online tasks for foreign companies. Common tasks include writing articles, blogs, forum posts, and other content. You might be updating websites or blogs. You might be doing some link building. Maybe programming (if that's a skill you have). You might be doing customer support through email or chat. Maybe you'll be designing web pages or building web sites. Doing research and gathering data is a common task. The tasks vary widely. You'll be matched up with a company looking for your skill set. You'll also likely be asked to learn new things and to grow!

I hope you find this article helpful to your success. If you would like to learn blogging, website creation, Wordpress, Joomla and others that I already learned from the internet, please join me in my FB page where I will share with you events that you can join, training materials, tips and online learnings that helped me through my online journey. Please also start paying forward by sharing this article with your Filipino friends, and relatives who you think might be interested to becoming a Virtual Assistant. 

iPhone apps for farming

Farm Manager

It is an app designed by a farmer for farmers. It allows farmers to record cropping, livestock, and machinery procedures, and access this information with ease. This app gives you all the information you need, right in the palm of your hand.

Features include:
- Record full history of crops from when they are sown through to harvested
- Record chemical and fertilizer use, including type, rate, and date applied
- Keep track of livestock, with full details of stock including ear tag numbers, bloodlines, breed, and year born
- Record shearing and crutching dates, plus all drenching, dipping, and jetting details
- Keep track of machinery maintenance, including engine oil and filter changes, transmission oil and filter changes, and hydro oil changes
- Take photos of your Crops, Livestock, Paddocks and Machinery, and link them to your data

Farm Contractor

It is designed to help agricultural contractors record client and job details. It allows contractors to record full details of their procedures and email them back to the home or office to be invoiced. With more than 25 job types including Baling, Equipment Hire, Harvesting, Mulching, Mustering, Shearing, Spraying and Windrowing.This app allows you to throw away your pen and paper and reach for your iPhone.




Both apps are created by Stringybark Software in collaboration between Gareth Mizzeni, a farmer, and Scott Goldie, a developer. Together, they aim to provide simple and easy to use software products for farmers that will help them track farm information at a cheap cost. Farm Manager $16.99, Farm contractor $9.99 as of published date on this blog.

What is aquaponics?

Aquaponics is one of the most productive and sustainable gardening in existence. It combines -
[1.] hydroponics (soil-less and water based plants propagation using grow beds) and
[2.] aquaculture  (raising of fish or crawfish using tanks)
where plants and fish are grown together in a symbiotic environment.

Here's a sample backyard aquaponics setup:

                                                   pechay and mustasa grow bed

                                                              tilapia fish tank

                                                         Aquaponics diagram

Why should I start aquaponics gardening and what are the benefits ?

- Aquaponics gardening is fun and rewarding

- Provides you with a renewable organic food source

- Great savings on your food bills

- Eat healthier and fresh food

- Handy supplies of organic herbs, vegetables and fish

- Minimizes greenhouse gases and decreases your environmental footprint 

- You can produce more with less space

This new technology or method of growing food is gaining popularity worldwide. If you want to learn more about aquaponics, please visit Aquaponics Philippines website.

Profitable eCommerce

Today I came across a good resource about eCommerce (www.ecommercefuel.com). If you are interested to learn more, Andrew Youderian, the owner of the web site, has written an e-book which you can download for free. Please see e-book link here.

Hope you also find the e-book and the web site helpful to your success my friend. Good luck!

How Can I Get People Visit my Site?

Setting up and designing a website takes time and lots of effort. So how can you make that effort not put to waste and bring in plenty of visitors? You may want to consider the following tips:

1. Keep your site simple.
Web surfers like web sites that are easy to read and navigate. Don't publish an article that increases the chance of your reader to having CTS (carpal tunnel syndrome) or eye problem. If an article is long, you may break it up into parts. You may also want to add a nice looking picture to each of your article, for a nicer look. A picture says a thousand words, so make sure that it tells something about your article. The image below is just nice, but really not providing relevance to the context of this article :)

                                         image source www.facebook.com/Farmculture

2. For new web site, skip the web counters.
You can monitor how many people are visiting your website, but its better if you can keep it on your own at first. If a visitor is only the 10th reader ever, he may never visit again. However, if you already accumulated many visitor count, it's good advertising to put counter to your website.

3. Tell your visitor what your site offers.
To entice viewers to visit your site, you need more than a table of content. Give a brief information of your pages in your site to encourage more visitors.

4. Add new content.
People go back to your site because they are updated regularly. You may want to consider adding a blog to your site, to get people to return. Readers want new information.

5. If you can, remove the dates.
Most of the CMS (Content Management System) like Wordpress, Joomla, Typepad and others include "last updated" tags. Unless the site is being updated frequently, the date tags can be a turnoff. Visitors may think a web site that has not been updated in months cannot possibly provide relevant information.

Longevity Tips

Aside from the known ways to prolong life such as to stop smoking, regular exercise and proper diet, there are many other. Check out the following tips:

1. Always use your mind. 
Additional 4 years. Use your brain to blunt it. Continue to study even with age. According to the analysis of Rush University Medical Center Chicago, those who are fond of reading, studying and answering crossword puzzles decreases the chance of having an Alzheimer's disease.

2. Choose a room with great views.
Additional 2 years. This is true. When you see beautiful and scenic views, you feel better. According to physician's findings, patients who see beautiful landscapes healed faster.

                                       image source from www.facebook.com/ilikegardening

3. Be active in the community.
Additional 3 years. Helping the community and having many friends makes you live longer. According to the study of 3,617 people by Professor Peggy Thoits of Vanderbilt University, those who help and serve the less fortunate feels happier and as a result they have more self confidence and a healthy body. When we help others, our body creates endorphins, a chemical that make us happy.

4. Avoid excessive noise.
Additional 1 year. According to the World Health Organization, excessive noise can cause heart disease and other illnesses. The noise of cars on the road (about 50 decibels) has bad effects in our health in the long run. Even when sleeping, we hear the noise and it produces stress in our body.

5. Avoid air pollution.
Additional 2 years. According to experts, air pollution such as sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides can cause heart attack. In the study made by Dr. Gerard Hoek of the Netherlands, people living along major roads are prone to having asthma, cough and heart disease. To prevent pollution, plant many trees.

Do Random Acts of Kindness

DoRAK. I initially thought the word is still unique and good for making an acronym for "Do Random Act of Kindness" which is interesting enough to ring a thought about kindness. But amazingly and I am happy to learn that there is already a group in Michigan that used the word exactly as i imagined. See their story in this site.

Every year, since God knows when, I follow basic principle to do something good to my community as a gratitude to the ONE who gave me life and for another blessed year. Not because of receiving back a hundredfold, but because of the ecstatic feeling of seeing a glimpse of heaven through the people that I somehow touch or help. Doing random acts of kindness gives me purpose and depth. I would like you to feel the same and experience meaningful life journeys.

In the Philippines, we have plenty of opportunities to DoRAK using our 3 Ts - Time, Talent or Treasure:
1. Brighten someones day by your smile, friendly hello or a happy note. 
2. Join a community that serves.
    Church. GK. Habitat for Humanity. CFC. SFC. ANAWIM. Foundations. etc.
3. Participate in blood letting activities.
4. Gift giving to the poor.
5. Feeding programs.
6. Teach and share your talent and skills to the less fortunate kids.
7. Dedicate time to talk to an elderly.
8. Donate to charity.
 

The above post is brought to you by Melanie Santiago, who enjoys helping people be healthy. Click here to get to know Melanie Santiago better.

Success Tips for 2013

Successful people are not born but rather made. Success is not measured based on material wealth but greatly on a person's mindset to rise up to the challenge by not compromising his core values. Success is into keeping physical, emotional, social and spiritual realm into balance and up float during journey through life. It is looking beyond what this world can offer. Others may be blinded by the worldly glitters, but surely there will be a stage in everyone's life to finding the true meaning of success. Hope that when you finally find it my friend, that it is not too late to enjoy with your loved ones.

Here are some friendly tips for you to finding success for 2013:
1. Know your passion.
2. Devote time to lifelong learning.
3. Do random act of kindness (DoRAK) and dedicate time to serving others.
4. Build a clear sense of direction.
5. Take care of your health. See this longevity tips.
6. Join a community of diverse people where you can learn and unlearn.
7. Simplify and live abundantly. There is ecstasy in simplicity.
8. Pray for strength.
9. Instead of going for the gold, go for the golden rule.

Have an abundant and blessed 2013 my friend!

The above post is brought to you by Melanie Santiago, who enjoys helping people be healthy. Click here to get to know Melanie Santiago better.