Fresh Ideas

Archive for December, 2008

Wow, the countdown is through and the day everyone is waiting for are mere hours left. You’ll definitely see smiles in everyone’s faces. Everybody is jolly. Being grumpy is not welcome at this day of the year. Everybody should welcome the day of nativity of Jesus Christ above anything else.

I’m too busy this week and I haven’t got the chance to attend midnight mass or “Simbang Gabi” in our parish but I do hope that I’ll be able to celebrate the last mass before Christmas later this evening with my significant other and finish off the night with a sumptuous Noche Buena.

So, are you done with your Christmas shopping? Me, I actually haven’t finished yet. Just bought some gifts for my “inaanak” or godchildren and some for my family and loved ones. It’s been a hell of a month for me, been too busy, got no time for shopping really.

Well, time to hit the sack to prepare the long night later…Merry Christmas to everyone!

The combination of advertising and blogs are match made in heaven. Why did I say this? The significance of blogging is writing your daily experiences, and how hard will it be to write your daily experience with a product or services that you recently tried? Of course, many are skeptical on this and some will definitely will not agree on writing something to market or advertise it, when they could definitely just write what they wanted. They would rather write and write about certain stuffs that may or may not interest other readers. But would it hurt to write opinions on products and services and at the same time will earn you?

Signing up to paid posting services websites offer blogger a very good avenue in generating income in just writing his or her opinion on what the advertiser requested. I haven’t tried it in my months of blogging, and in these months of blogging, I humbly generated traffic and the readership is growing slowly in a good rate. I will surely welcome it and god knows, the opportunity that I let passed before will grant me with additional means to blog about.

Advertisers on the other hand will definitely benefit in utilizing the services of blog marketing because according to marketing studies, it is much cheaper than advertising on other forms of media like print and television. Also, advertising in the internet, and specifically through blogs are widely seen and no print ads and television commercials can match the wide reach it can leave.

I’ve checked Payingpost website a couple of weeks ago and I instantly noticed the new layout and it was very user-friendly and easy to navigate. The layout before was already good, but now the website has a very clean look. There are also some articles that clearly explain all the good things on blog advertising and marketing that are very beneficial unlike other paid posting services that doesn’t explain and give tips to advertisers and bloggers alike.

You can really feel Christmas in the air now. The temperature is quite cold even in noontime. Many packed the malls these days to go about their annual Christmas shopping. You will also see different kinds of things being sold in the streets. Just try to check and you might find a really good deal with your money with a little haggling.

Just barely 9 days to go before the celebrated birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God in the Christian world. But of course, there is too much to be said for Christmas and I can fill my whole site on articles for Christmas but for now, I will only tackle famous Filipino traditions, and one of the famous is the Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo or midnight mass.

This tradition started in the Spanish colonization era in the Philippines. In Spanish speaking countries, Misa de Gallo is only celebrated at midnight on Christmas Eve, but in the Philippines, this custom starts at dawn on December 16 until December 24 at around 4 to 5 in the morning.

We can also never leave the fact that Simbang Gabi means treating yourself in traditional Filipino delicacies like puto bumbong (a purple colored rice pastry, seasoned with grated coconut and brown sugar) with salabat or ginger tea, bibingka (flour and egg cakes cooked on top and under) and hot cocoa drink being sold by vendors outside the church.

Together with this custom is the traditional “Parol” or Christmas lantern. According to Philippines history, the early farmers took lanterns on their way to the church to celebrate the midnight mass.

The usual shape of these lanterns is star and was inspired by the star on the Nativity of Jesus that guided the three kings or magi to the birthplace.

The usual parols are made of bamboo strips pasted with papel de japon or Japanese paper and illuminated by candle, but now, there are different variations and sometimes the shapes is not anymore like a star and electric Christmas lights illuminates it instead of the usual candle.

Christmas will never be Christmas in the Philippines without these traditions.

Congratulations to my beloved fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, in celebrating its 83^rd founding anniversary on this day, December 16, 2008.

Alpha Phi Omega is an international collegiate fraternity with chapters all over the Philippines and in the founding country, the United States of America.

Alpha Phi Omega or simply APO prides itself on centering its goals on developing one’s leadership traits, promotes brotherhood in the spirit of friendship and being socially aware in serving our nation as better citizen.

I’m too proud to be a member of this prestigious organization since 1997. I’m just sad that I cannot attend to our “Salubong” or our chapter’s annual celebration of our founding anniversary the day before, December 15. But anyways, I hope the spirit of brotherhood will always keep burning in the hearts of our brother and sisters in this day and age.

May we always be!

Sweet, very sweet indeed! Everyone in the Philippines are ecstatic now because of the fantastic win of Manny Pacquiao over Oscar De La Hoya.

The underdog became victorious at the MGM last Saturday, December 6, 2008 as Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao triumphed over Oscar “Golden Boy” De La Hoya.

The fight was stopped before the start of the ninth round as De La Hoya surrendered.

Actually, I already knew that I’m gonna be missing the fight because I’ll go with my girlfriend to accompany her to her dentist. I’m just lucky that there is a television in the dentist’s clinic and we came just in time when the fight’s gonna start.

It was really exciting watching our own “kababayan” fight with one of the world’s best; however, my excitement just blew away after the lady in the clinic just mentioned that Pacquiao won in the 8^th round according to the news in the radio earlier. The local channel is a bit late in showing the actual fight and if you wanted to watch the fight live, you should be willing to pay because this is a pay-per-view fight.

So, let’s get back to the actual fight. The first round was explosive! The two fighters are exchanging good blows, but it is clearly seen that Pacquiao is leading in punches that connected.

After the second round, we left the clinic, and I insisted that we ride the bus that has a television for us to continue watching the fight. Fortunately, my girlfriend doesn’t have any qualms on this because she too wanted to watch the fight.

As the rounds go by, you will see that this is a lopsided fight and even if you are not a judge and you are not a fan of Pacquiao, you can definitely tell that all of the rounds are his.

Pacquio’s training paid off in all the rounds and before the start of the ninth round, De La Hoya with the left eye nearly shut approached Manny to congratulate him and Referee Weeks stopped the fight.

The biggest fight of Pacquiao’s life is now over. His biggest dream of competing with De La Hoya, the 10-time world champion came to a sweet end in the ninth round. Everyone is saying that Pacquiao couldn’t win this fight and there is a mismatch between these two gladiators but he emerged as the true winner.

The much awaited boxing match of the year between Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and Oscar “Golden Boy” De La Hoya will take stage this Saturday, December 6, 2008 (December 7, 2008 Sunday in Manila, Philippines) at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, Nevada U.S.

$100 Million is at stake at this welterweight bout and promises to be an explosive one since it has been announced months before and the whole Philippines’ boxing aficionados are really waiting to watch this fight.

Men, women, young and old are waiting for this event as Manny Pacquiao, considered as “Pambansang Kamao” or national punch or fist as I should say will test his boxing skill with the boxing veteran De La Hoya.

Many are skeptical and said that the fight is not that fair since De La Hoya has the height and reach advantage, plus the fact that they are from a different weight division. De La Hoya, who is 5’10″ is taller by 4 inches and has a 6 inches advantage over Pacquiao. The advantage that many think is the age of the two boxers. Pacquiao is six younger at 29 and usually, age does matter in boxing in terms of agility and other criteria.

It is said that this will be the Golden Boy’s farewell fight and the biggest fight for Pacman. The division difference will have Pacquiao stack up until he reaches the 66.5 kilograms or 147 pounds needed and De La Hoya will sacrifice until he dropped to that weight.

Every Filipino is excited for this fight and everyone is hoping that our own will come out victorious in this bout!

What can you say about this? One store worker was dead and two people were shot dead because of the Black Friday sale.

One Wal-Mart worker came out dead after being trampled by stampede after opening the store’s door at 5 a.m. in Wal-Mart Long Island, New York.

The second incident was on Toys “R” Us in Palm Desert, California when two men were shot dead just because they were arguing.

The shooting happened at around 11:30 a.m. It is not clear according to the police how the shooting happened and there was a confrontation inside the store.

These two incidents were unrelated but of course due to Black Friday, which as we all know is the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States, and the biggest shopping day of the year.

It is very unfortunate that these events happen when the only goal for that day is to get a good deal.

What is wrong with people if they can have the chance to purchase and save a few dollars but to the expense of killing one another?

You know what, I really felt sick upon reading the news. People are just so mindless, and they can be so greedy and insensitive just to purchase items and to save a few bucks, without thinking of people around them. How can they spend Christmas thinking someone died just because of that?