Got this tag from desperate blogger. Thank you The idea is to know the location of our buddy bloggers.

Rules :

1. Start Copy from "Begin Copy" until "End Copy".
2. Put your blog's name and url write in which continent you live, add the country you live in. Example : My Imaginary Travels (Netherlands)
3. Leave your url post in here and I'll add you to the Master List.
4. Please help spread this tag by tagging your friends as much as you can.
5. Don't play unfair! If you have more than 1 blog, you can participate all your blogs for this tag. BUT you will have to post this tag to all your blogs as well. So, please. Don't cheat!
6. Please come back again to copy the update of the master list, often. This process will help new participants to get the same gains as the first participants.
7. Don't forget to use the banner at your post, you can save as or you can just copy the code in here.

Master List :

A. Asia : 1. Moms... Check Nyo (Philippines) 2. Hailey's Beats and Bits (Philippines) 3. allinkorea (Korea) 4. kimchiland (Korea) 5. korean food (Korea) 6. idealpinkrose (Korea) 7. Manna from Heaven (Philippines) 8. and Life Goes On for... (Philippines) 9. Me, the islands and the world (Philippines) 10. Pinay Heart Wanderings and Musings (Philippines)

B. Australia : 1. your turn

C. Afrika : 1. your turn

D. North Amerika : 1. your turn

E. South Amerika : 1. your turn

F. Europe : 1. My Imaginary Travels (Netherlands) 2. Juliana's Site (Netherlands) 3. Picturing of Life (Netherlands) 4. your turn

G. Antarctica : 1. your turn

~ End Copy ~

Can the following blogger friends travel with me?

Micamania, Chloe, Shieryl, Abby, BingG, Jojo, Flor and all my blogger-friends who want to do this. Have fun!

My mother comes from a family of entrepreneurs and investors. My parents themselves are entrepreneurs and they would usually say that working in the office would not make me rich. Most of my cousins have their own investments and/or small businesses as well. So, it comes as natural that I would like to have some investments of my own. I have already started small. In this kind of venture, research and reading more about investments, financial and entrepreneurial information from financial and investment experts like Andrew Wilshire help a lot. He runs his own Investment Newsletter that generates market predictions and/or analyses. His experience and expertise could really help make investing and financial planning easier.

Every time I hear a story about a doctor leaving the country for greener pastures abroad, I could not help but feel betrayed and mortified. For sure, they have their valid reasons for leaving but I just could not help wonder if they ever thought of their poorest countrymen who really need them than those rich countries that pay really good bucks. Yes, they have their own family’s future to think of and the green bucks are better abroad than the Philippines. But do they ever think about their moral obligation to their own country wherein some places are considered lucky if they have their one doctor for the entire community every 3 months? Some actually, have not seen doctors in years!!

So, let us give recognition to those doctors who have remained, dedicated their lives and career to help their own countrymen. The Ten Outstanding Filipino Physicians award was formally launched by the JCI Senate Philippines and the Department of Health last April 9. Submission of nominations shall end on August 17, 2008. Email: tofp_jcisp@yahoo.com or check out their blog, http://tofpjcisp2007.multiply.com

For these doctors, they are my heroes.

“It is not easy being on active military duty”, that is what I remember my cousin-soldier always say. My cousin has been deployed to Iraq for several times now and is expecting to be sent back again sometime late this year. His mother is getting anxious about it as she knows that her son will live very dangerously again.

I have seen some of my cousin’s Iraq pictures and it is truly heart wrenching to see. For him and his comrades, they have to be always on alert and should always be wearing their protective gears such as helmet and the vest. Those protective gears when properly worn could actually save their lives according to his stories; thus, their quality should be very good. Vests like Blackhawk tactical vest are considered of vests of very good quality.

There are times we feel insignificant or useless. We even question our purpose in life, despise our imperfections and envy others whom we see as better than us. Everyone is significant in the eyes of God. Here’s a reminder that everyone has purpose in life.

The next time you feel like GOD cannot use you, just remember...

       Noah was a drunk, Abraham was too old, Isaac was a daydreamer
       Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused
       Moses had a stuttering problem, Gideon was afraid
       Sampson had long hair and was a womanizer
       Rahab was a prostitute, Jeremiah and Timothy were too  young
       David had an affair and was a  murderer, Elijah was suicidal !
       Isaiah preached naked, Jonah ran from God, Naomi was a widow
       Job went bankrupt, John the Baptist ate bugs, Peter denied Christ
       The Disciples fell asleep while praying, Martha worried about everything
       The Samaritan woman was divorced, more  than once
       Zaccheus was too small, Paul was too religious
       Timothy had an ulcer...AND, Lazarus was dead! !
       No more excuses now!!

 God can use us to our full potential. Besides we aren't the message, we are just the  messenger.
 
"Let your LIGHT so SHINE..."  Matt  5:16

Have a good day, peeps!

My nieces and me have one thing in common with when I was their age, our love for comics and funny Jokes. So, each time I buy a newspaper, they’d surely ask for the comics section; of course, after I am done reading them. There is nothing like a good joke that could lighten up a moment or a day. Sometimes, to make my blog perk up, I also like to insert comics and funny jokes from time to time and here’s a good source of funny Jokes. Got a funny joke for you now.

It used to be that there were just me and my parents in the house plus a dog and 2 cats but as years go by, our hairy family members extended to 2 more dogs and 5 more cats plus we got 2 more non-hairy family membersJ, my 2 nieces who are now living with us. You can imagine the racket and “hairy days” this whole menagerie can cause in our house.

We thought of getting a maid but it’s not really financially viable for us. As my mother usually does the cleaning in the mornings, I told my mother to try to stop cleaning for just a day and hmmm.. half-day went and the whole house smelled like a whole pack of skunks had a party inside our house. We thought of giving away our pets, but the thought is just heartbreaking.

On Saturdays, to give my mother some rest from cleaning, I would assign my nieces their chores for the day and usually, I assist them along the way. Christine will do the laundry, dusting of the cabinets and the bathroom cleaning, while Liza will do the dishes, clean up the kitchen, feed the pets and clean up after they pooped.  While I was trying to finish some blogging assignment one Saturday, the house seemed unusually quiet. I just thought that my nieces were just busy doing their chores. Went to check them and found Liza covering our kitchen floor with newspapers almost wall to wall. Asked her what she was doing and she explained that one of the dogs decided to poop on the kitchen floor without waiting to go outside and she was trying to cover it. Since she was worried that some cat or dog will poop again on the kitchen floor plus cats’ and dogs’ hairs were invariably present, she decided to just cover the previous dog crime and will just let the others do their thing until the end of the day wherein she’ll scoop all those newspapers for a one-time clean up. Smart! But yucky!

Solution: Vacuum that can go wherever we want to go. Why? Kids and pets go well in messing up a place in a blink of an eye. Pet hairs can go anywhere and with the cordless Dirt Devil vacuum, any place is reachable and cleanable. Besides, Dirt Devil AccuCharge vacuums are the first cordless vacuums that earned Energy Star approval because they use 70% less energy. Energy-saving and at the same time, money-saving for me.

I got this from a friend and it made me think that yes, no matter how irrelevant we feel in this big, big world of ours, each one of us has a place in God’s eyes and can be God's instrument to some people.  We just need to believe in ourselves. Read on…
THE  SPARROW AT STARBUCK'S-- WONDERFUL !!
 
The song that silenced the cappuccino  machine
 
       by John Thomas Oaks
 
       It was chilly in Manhattan but warm inside the Starbucks shop on 51st Street and Broadway, just a skip up from Times Square .  Early November weather in NewYork City holds only the slightest hint of the bitter chill of late December and January, but it's enough to send the masses crowding indoors to vie for available space and warmth.
 
       For a musician, it's the most  lucrative Starbucks location in the world, I'm told, and consequently, the tips can be substantial if you play your tunes right. Apparently, we were striking all the right chords that night, because our basket was almost overflowing.
 
       It was a fun, low-pressure gig - I was playing keyboard and singing backup for my friend who also added rhythm with an arsenal of percussion instruments. We mostly did pop songs from the '40s to the  '90s with a few original tunes thrown in. During our emotional rendition of the classic, "If You
Don't Know Me by Now," I noticed a lady sitting in one of the  lounge chairs across from me. She was swaying to the beat and singing along.
 
       After the tune was over, she approached me. "I apologize for singing along on that song. Did it bother you?"  she asked.
 
       "No," I replied. "We love it when the  audience joins in. Would you like to sing up front on the next selection?"
 
       To my delight, she accepted my  invitation.
 
       "You choose," I said. "What are you in the mood to sing?"
 
       "Well. .. do you know any hymns?"
 
       Hymns? This woman didn't know who she was dealing with. I cut my teeth on hymns. Before I was even born, I was going  to church. I gave our guest singer a knowing look. "Name one."
 
       "Oh, I don't know. There are so many good ones. You pick one."
 
       "Okay," I replied. "How about 'His Eye is on the Sparrow'?"
 
       My new friend was silent, her eyes averted. Then she fixed her eyes on mine again and said, "Yeah. Let's do that one."
 
       She slowly nodded her head, put down her purse, straightened her jacket and faced the center of the shop. With my two-bar setup, she began to sing.
 
       Why should I be discouraged?  Why should the shadows come?
 
       The audience of coffee drinkers was transfixed. Even the gurgling noises of the cappuccino machine ceased as the employees stopped what they were doing to listen. The song rose to its conclusion.
 
       I sing because I'm happy;  I sing because I'm free.
 
       For His eye is on the sparrow,  And I know He watches me.
 
       When the last note was sung, the applause crescendoed to a deafening roar that would have rivaled a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall.  Embarrassed, the woman tried to shout over the din, "Oh, y'all go back to your coffee! I didn't come in here to do a concert! I just came in here to get somethin' to drink, just like you!" But the ovation continued. I embraced my new  friend.
 
       "You, my dear, have made my whole year! That was beautiful!"
 
       "Well, it's funny that you picked that particular hymn," she said.
 
       "Why is that?"
 
       "Well .." she hesitated again, "that was my daughter's favorite song."
 
       "Really!" I exclaimed.
 
       "Yes," she said, and then grabbed my hands. By this time, the applause had subsided and it was business as usual.  "She was 16. She died of a brain tumor last week."
 
       I said the first thing that found its way through my stunned silence.
 
       "Are you going to be okay?"
 
       She smiled through tear-filled eyes and squeezed my hands. "I'm gonna be okay. I've just got to keep trusting the Lord and singing his songs, and everything's gonna be just fine." She picked up her bag, gave me her card, and then she was gone.
 
       Was it just a coincidence that we happened to be singing in that particular coffee shop on that particular November night? Coincidence that this wonderful lady just happened to walk into that particular shop? Coincidence that of all the hymns to choose from, I just happened to pick the very hymn that was the favorite of her daughter, who had  died just the week before? I refuse to believe it.
 
       God has been arranging encounters in human history since the beginning of time, and it's no stretch for me to imagine that he could reach into a coffee shop in midtown Manhattan and turn an ordinary gig into a revival. It was a great reminder that if we keep trusting him and singing his songs, everything's gonna be okay.

Social Spark’s having some real problems with its ITK code nowadays and bloggers like me are getting frustrated. ITK code is important for blogs to get tracked as well as in the submission of  sponsored posts. It is really such a hassle if you’re already done with your reserved opportunity. Imagine, squeezing every brain cells inside your brain just to keep your creative juices working in coming up with a good content for your post to earn some income and pffftt…come submission time, you cannot submit it. Courtesy of the missing ITK code. ITK…ITK..where are you? I do hope the Social Spark people will be able to address this problem and/or if the occurrence cannot be eradicated, minimize them.