Birthday Thoughts

Today I got the chance to ponder once again about the seemingly happy tradition that is very widely observed, but in its truest sense, a “vanity and vexation of spirit.”

“I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Ecclesiastes 1:14

Just recently the Chief of Police celebrated his birthday, or so as he says “Mananita,” amidst the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and gained the ire of the public for violating that very thing that they are making the people follow.

And as I can see in the leaked photos over social media, people are giving him a cake and flowers, songs being sung for him, and then there’s feasting over an abundance. More like offering to him a sacrifice (risking their health amidst the threat of the pandemic) of praise and honor, right? Yes that’s what people do when someone celebrates their birthday. The good things about them, wonderful things they’ve done, their worthy characteristics, among others, are praised, given high regard, worshiped.

Have we all been taught enough in the Bible to worship God alone?

“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Matthew 4:10

And so today this is a related story.

My colleague sent me a private message to prepare 10-minute videos each which will be compiled together with the other colleagues’ videos. The videos are supposed to contain our Birthday greetings to our boss, whose birthday is tomorrow.

Having realized recently that Birthdays have pagan origins, and that Satanists uphold it as their most important holiday, I began to unlearn the celebration for me and my family. It is also to obey God’s word thru Jeremiah to learn not the way of the heathen.

“Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.” Jeremiah 10:2.

By default I wouldn’t be recording the video, until I realized that today is the birthday of one of our teammates. This teammate has been on sick leave since January in his fight against cancer, and have survived a major operation and is undergoing treatments since.

I asked my colleague if any similar effort is initiated or being done for our teammate.

There is none.

So why the video for our boss, and none for a teammate?

Why the regard for someone of higher position while just ordinary greeting, if any, to a commoner, when Jesus loves us all?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” John 13:16

Maybe to gain the boss’ smile and his appreciation, upon bestowing unto him the effort, the honor, the awesome greetings.

Maybe for the reason of obtaining the approval of that one with power.

“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10

With this, may we be wise and obedient to

“Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away” (Proverbs 4:15)

those things that are “vanity and vexation of spirit.”

God loves us all!

 

P.S.

In the Bible no man/woman of God celebrated their birthday.

Only twice was there such a celebration by non-believing kings, and for one it involved the beheading of John the Baptist.

Amazing how “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” Psalm 116:15. Not the birthday.

Speed Test Results during the COVID-19 Enhanced Community Quarantine

Working from home, with VPN access to my company’s network, and regular Teleconferencing, speedy internet connection is a must!

Here I’m going to share my speed test results using Ookla.

March 19, 2020 afternoon

March 20, 2020 morning

March 24, 2020 morning

Stay tuned for more results!

Data Analytics Module B: Data Warehousing

I’m one blessed employee once again as I attend this company-sponsored training, provided by UP NEC at UP Diliman.

It’s a series of Modules, for which only Modules B and C were approved by my management for me to take. I am hoping to attend them all, and eventually obtain the certifications.

Upon registering online I received these reminders through email from the UP NEC staff:

This is a very helpful set of reminders even for me who had past two trainings in the institution already.

Having noted that breakfast will be served, I did not mind taking my breakfast, which is a terrible mistake because it was served at 10am!

Anyway, upon arriving at 7:30am there are already 15 students in the designated room at the 4th floor of Junio Hall. Yes our room is at the 4th, without elevators so I had a good morning climb!

Below are the free items in this 3-day training:

Notebook

Ballpen

USB where we can copy our handouts. Yes to paperless!

It’s sad that due to summer heat and the building’s age and maintenance (combined factors), airconditioning didn’t seem to cope and no water is available within the restrooms.

So far I’m having a lot of learnings in this fast-paced course. Good that we have individual computers, so bringing of own laptops is not really necessary.

Will get back soon for updates.

How to Make Latik and Coconut Oil

Coconut Oil has many known benefits to our overall health, inside and out. Many do not know that making this oil at home is so easy, and has an equally amazing by-product: the “Latik.”

On New Year’s Day of 2019, I gave my first shot at making coconut oil.

I used coconut milk (gata) from 3 mature coconuts I bought from Novaliches Bayan. I had them pressed by the machine used by the vendors so I skipped the tedious task of pressing the juice out of the coconut meat!

Immediately as I got home (around 15 minutes from the market), I poured the coconut milk onto the pan and started the low flame. This is how it looked after around 30 minutes of boiling:

Gently mixing the coconut milk from time to time, one will notice that the bubbly whitish part seem to be set apart from the clear, oily part.

After about another hour under continuous low fire, it begins to turn brown:

The oil becomes more prominent and one can separate it from the brown part, which by now has turned solid. This just needs another 30 minutes and then voila! We have around 5 ounces of coconut oil and a lot of Latik for our delicacies. Overall, it took 2 hours to make this.

I hope to do this again for my future coconut oil needs!

The Needed Break

For over a year after signing up as a Mary Kay beauty consultant, I have used only Mary Kay products for my skincare and makeup needs. For a woman, it’s hard to suddenly let go of well-loved products from other leading brands, at the worse tossing them out while not yet empty. Ahh that feeling of excitement actually to embrace a whole new line!

So for over a year of exclusively using Mary Kay, I realised how I missed other brands, especially as I see advertisements on them being on sale in Lazada, Shopee, and in their mall counters. Next thing I knew I was holding a tube of Ever Bilena Whitening BB Cream one summer morning to try out its effect on my face. On the month that followed I was trying out the most raved Maybelline Fit Me Matte Foundation in shade 128!

I’d like to share how did this break from Mary Kay went…

For the EB Whitening BB Cream, it gave me a light glow which got me through the hot summer tour in Singapore. It stayed on and did not oxidize at all. I actually consumed more than half of it before realising that I was using too much to gain the needed coverage, as it gives light to medium finish since it’s a BB cream.

Upon realising that I needed more coverage, with less product as was with the Mary Kay Time wise Liquid Foundation (where a little goes a looong way), I considered the Maybe line Fit Me Matte Foundation.

I gave it around 2 weeks to prove itself. Sad that it oxidizes on me (which is what I didn’t like with Mary Kay timewise), but good that I got the shade 128 which is initially too light on my morena skin but after setting it made me achieve the right match! Aside from oxidation, it tends to make my skin a little too oily, and gets oilier as days went by. I’m consuming more and more oil-blotting films, haha!

Then I said to myself, this break is over. Got to return to my Mary Kay makeup, but instead of using my Beiges, which really oxide to make my skin a little darker, I chose to give the Ivory shade a shot, and it made wonders! At first it is too light on me, but as it sets and even as the day goes on, it doesn’t turn too dark for me.

With this, Mary Kay is still the best daily foundation with its skin care benefits and staying power, I just had to choose the lighter shade to address the oxidation

After 17 Months

Yes it’s been that long since my last blog and I’m glad I got down to write my first blog this year.

Many have come and gone in those long 17 months that I really long to share with any reader who might come across this.

Since August 17, here’s a rundown of what came which is worth sharing in my next blogs:

❣️Signed-up as Mary kay Beauty Consultant and conducted my skin Care classes and made sales

❣️Spent holidays in the province and stayed in the hospital when we got back

❣️Sent my 3-year old to preschool

❣️Went on a cruise ship

❣️Finished my Victory Weekend

❣️Found a victory group for me and hubby

❣️Experienced my all-time low in my 11-year-long career

❣️At the same time experiencing my all-time high: Got promoted to Senior Manager

❣️Had my son’s eyes diagnosed with astigmatism and got him wearing his glasses right before turning 4.

❣️Had my Paymaya account

❣️Signed up at Frontrow International, as well as VIP Club Philippines

❣️Had 3 more addition to my team, and had a rough journey against all odds

Whew the list is long! Will i be able to catch up? Yes hopefully so!

My Shopee.ph Selling Career

Several months after selling my first product via the shopee.ph application on my android smartphone, I now have built up my shop into the following characteristics:

• 529 products for sale
• 23 5-star ratings from 23 transactions
• 1 4-star rating from 1 transaction
• Php 9,434 worth of income
• Response rate: 78%
• Response time: within hours

There had been weeks of dormant selling status, while there had been days when orders kept coming. Thanks to my ever-supporting Avon Lady who prepares the items, which are mostly Avon products. Below are my learnings so far:

• Always update my products online to avoid having to cancel orders because of non-availability of stocks. This also saves time in responding to inquiries regarding out-of-stock items. This can be done by having the new brochure handy at least a day before the brochure turnover, and then updating the shop the day before the brochure campaign period.
• Have an open communication with the supplier. In my case I’m very indebted to my Avon Lady in keeping track of the product’s actual stock in the branch.
• Stay online to respond to customers in no time. A little delay will change the buyer’s mind, especially so that there is a handful of other sellers of same/similar items on shopee.ph. Attending to their queries at once will help ensure you consequently get an order. Plus this adds up to your response time that is recorded by the app.

So far that’s there is to it. I hope to have more sales in the coming months to come. This is the source of my secondary income, but I treat is more of my past-time.

 

Crazy Over Rosemary

Ever since I became an adult I’ve been aware that I have a seemingly receding hairline. And after a pregnancy and a series of hair treatments through the years, I now have thinner hair plus more hair strands on the shower drain. Now that I’ve just turned 30, sporting bangs to hide my forehead doesn’t seem to be a sustainable solution. That’s why I decided to have a try on nature’s promising solution: the Rosemary oil of course from Human Heart Nature.

It is 100% natural and comes in a cute bottle with oil dropper. With the promise of boosting my mind and mane, this oil has its distinct scent that I love to be with at the lowest points of my day. I put oil at my fingertips and gently massage it over my scalp, and then at times I also massage it on the tips of my dry hair.

It is lightweight and gives my hair a healthy glow. I hope to reap its major benefit of growing my hair thicker. 

My Radio

In this age of digital technology, who would want an analog radio? Me of course! Something that will give me access to FM and AM stations, and with bonus MP3 player via USB, mini SD and SD cards! But wait, there’s more! An emergency flashlight, and a capability to be a speaker for microphone!

It has 4 power sources namely: internal rechargeable battery, the regular 2 1.5V batteries, AC through the power cord, and from solar panel if available around. 

I got this wonder for Php500 and it comes with red accents, perfect for my birthday!

Although it’s made in China, it’s sound is superb and not the ear-wacking quality. It has huge volume too! 

Am loving this!