Cheers for the New Year!
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Friday, 09 January 09 - 04:46 PM (GMT +08:00) By Ces Catubay in Random Thoughts |
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My holiday has been wonderful. I was able to meet some of my friends, god-children on Christmas day (who would have missed that!), and a very good friend of mine which turned out to be a surprise.
New set of snapshots can be seen in my gallery. Everyone wants to have something left for memories. I don’t have the full album yet, so here are some photos from my cam.
N.B. I have a strong weakness with these things, so please bear with my goofy shots. :D
I had a wonderful holiday! Hope you had a good one too.
Merry Christmas
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Monday, 29 December 08 - 10:51 AM (GMT +08:00) By Ces Catubay in Random Thoughts |
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Inexpensive Gifts for Christmas
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Wednesday, 03 December 08 - 02:27 PM (GMT +08:00) By Ces Catubay in Random Thoughts |
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Christmas has always been a rave all over the world. A well celebrated holiday of the year is always accompanied by colorful Christmas decorations, shining lights at night, enchanting Christmas carols, and Christmas-themed displays fills the areas of malls white it awaits for busy shoppers buying gifts. In spite of all the logs going around, the spirit of Christmas will still flourish in our hearts. The feeling has always been the same - everything is on bliss.
Gift-giving is by far a big part of the Yuletide. It’s overwhelming when we see that winning smile of our loved-one while unwrapping your presents for them. It’s the thought that counts – so make the thought brighter by giving that super cool stuff they’ve always wanted. It hasn’t had to be expensive. They may have just been sitting around the corners of your house or on one of the oldest stores in your area. This needs a little research – just remember the times when you’re together and think of the things that makes them happy or bring-out their child-like wonder.
Here are some inexpensive treats you can give to your loved ones.
1. Plants on pot or gardening tools - If they have a green thumb and gardening is their thing, they will surely love these gifts.
2. Books – A popular gift on Christmas. If they love books, it doesn’t need to be their favorite author. Find the plot of the story they enjoy and get a book with a similar plot. A health book is a good option too especially for elders to improve their health.
3. Tops – Choose something that’s in their style or better yet their favorite color.
4. Homemade cakes – I have a sweet tooth so I will surely have a big smile when I receive one. Anyone who wants them too?
5. Vintage photos – Find their oldest of their old photo collection and frame it just to tease them.
6. Spoof Shirts – It’s always fun to see spoof shirts and they will surely smile when they receive one.
7. A bag of lollies – Kids will surely love this. Everyone seems to be giving toys to them and to make you different, give them a bag filled with candies. You can use Santa’s socks as a substitute.
8. Spa gift certificate - Very indulging gift for your loved ones. They will surely love it especially after the busy season.
9. Bath and body gifts – Give them something they can use to indulge their bodies. A basket with a body wash, shampoo and conditioner, lotion, bath salts, hand wash and soaps is all good.
10. All Personalized – Give shirts, bags, mugs, calendar or anything that can be customized to have the personal touch.
10 Basic SEO Techniques
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Wednesday, 12 November 08 - 10:06 AM (GMT +08:00) By Ces Catubay in Techie |
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a practice of optimizing a website in order to increase its traffic and rank higher on search engine results. The higher the rank is, the greater the chance of attracting visitors from the target market. SEO helps to ensure that a website is accessible to visitors and web crawlers as well.
Learn the techniques that can help you in climbing Search Engines results.
- Anchor Tags. Anchor tags are used to create links to pages on a website. A good keyword combination inside an anchor tag is important. In order to get your readers’ attention, your links should be interesting to gain clicks. Links within your website is also a good practice to point your readers to related topics in your site. Spiders that crawl websites love to jump on links to another.
- H1, H2 and Strong tags. Headings give weight to your text especially if it is inside the H1 tag. Use H1 for the main heading or your target keywords and H2 for sub-headings or sub-topics. These headings show the spiders that these are the main subjects on your site, helping your content to be indexed.
Strong or bold texts also give emphasis to a series of words. Just like the h1 and h2 tags, they also weigh more than the regular texts. Make sure that your headings are related to your content. Again, a good combination of words pays a lot. - Titles. The title tag is one of the most important parts of your website. Your target keyword should be used on your website’s title. Different title tags on each page should also be practiced.
- Alt tags on Images. Being said that texts play an important role in SEO, alt tags should be placed when you use images on your website. Oftentimes, we use images to further illustrate our subject and give life to our content. Since spiders cannot see these images, use alt tags to describe what is being shown. Here’s an example: < img height="70" width="120" src="banner.gif" alt="Free Websites" />
- Choose your domain wisely. Spiders also read domain names when they crawl. A relevant domain pays more on your search engine rank. A number of factors should be considered when choosing a domain (or sub-domain) name. Most of the time, the domain of our choice is already taken. Don’t lose hope. Try to experiment by re-arranging the words or adding a new word to generate a new domain related to your first choice.
- Quality Content. Pay attention on the quality of your content rather than quantity. A long post might bore your readers making them leave your site instead of staying longer. An efficient practice of writing a blog post is by summarizing it in bullets just like this post. In this way, your readers can easily see the important points clearly. It is also necessary that the keywords you used in your Meta tag can be found in your content.
- Usability. Bear in mind that in websites, ‘First impressions last’. If you give your visitors a good experience during their first visit, they will come back. Simplicity is the key to usability. If your goal is to rank well on search engines, set aside some design factors. A simple interface with a simple menu is effective because your visitors can immediately see where they can navigate. If your site is not user-friendly, your visitors will lose patience and leave your site.
- Update Regularly. Spiders love to crawl on new information so it is important that your website is updated regularly. Content is king! Make sure it is composed of unique and relevant information. Duplicated contents that are copied from other sites do not help on your rankings. In addition, a minimum of 250 words is necessary to get to higher spots.
- Use SEO Tools. A number of SEO tools are available for free. These tools can help you monitor if you’re making progress and analyze your website. Avoid using automated software that promises to help you rank well or build links for you. It is important that you’re hands-on to the whole process. Few samples of free online SEO tools are, Google Analytics, Keyword Suggestion Tool from SEO Book, Alexa Traffic Analyzer, and Google Webmaster Tools.
- Patience is a virtue. SEO is not a one-night miracle technique. It takes time before you can see results. The more you improve your content, the greater the chance you can get noticed by spiders. Avoid overdoing anything that is beyond the rules of SEO. Avoid black hat SEO techniques that promise quick results and increase your site’s traffic. Hidden texts, link-farming, spamming and duplicated contents are a big NO in SEO.
These are just basic and easy techniques to help your site be indexed by search engines. It is still all in your hands on how you apply these changes. Never stop learning. Learn new ways in optimizing your site. It takes time to get decent ranks on search results so do not be disappointed if you can’t get it soon enough. Good luck on your SEO quest!
7 Ways to Slash Stress
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Wednesday, 05 November 08 - 01:31 PM (GMT +08:00) By Ces Catubay in Random Thoughts |
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An article from Dr. Maoshing Ni
Chronic stress seems to be our national disease, especially these days. Millions suffer from symptoms of stress: nervous tension, restless sleep, difficulty focusing and remembering, irritability, and health complications. Generally speaking, stress speeds up aging. Learn the ways to manage stress, and you will look and feel younger.
1. Start your day with meditation
Spend time every day in meditative relaxation, with calming music if you desire. Start with five minutes and work your way to 15 or 20 minutes each day. Meditation is your number one way to reduce the output of stress hormones and avoid adrenal exhaustion, serious threats to your health.
Try this Stress Release Meditation: Breathe consciously, relax, and with each exhale focus on relaxing each area of your body in sequence, starting from the top of your head and moving all the way down to your toes.
2. Manage your mood with diet and herbs
Chinese Medicine considers the liver to be the center of your emotions. To allay stress and balance your emotions, keep your liver healthy and happy:
• Every day, eat lots of green leafy vegetables, barley grass, seaweed - anything high in chlorophyll - to keep the liver in good health.
• Take 500 mg dandelion daily for a month or longer to cleanse the liver and help release built-up anger.
• Take 400 mg white peony root daily for 1 to 3 months to soothe the liver and balance your mood.
• Schisandra berry protects the liver from chemicals and calms the spirit. For emotional anxiety, take 200 mg daily for a month.
Take these herbs anytime during the day and before bed in tea or capsule form. All the herbs are available from health food stores and Eastern medicine practitioners. Many of my patients have had remarkable results with Calm-Fort Elixir, an all-natural formulation of herbs to calm your spirit. For more information, click here.
3. Suppress stress with positive thinking
Instead of letting your thoughts run wild with anxiety, say affirmations to yourself, such as "I can handle the tasks I have ahead of me. I enjoy my responsibilities and fulfill them well." In fact, repeating positive affirmations can actually suppress the cortisol that the adrenal gland releases in times of stress - leaving you peaceful and calm.
4. Get stress out of your head and on paper
Writing in a journal every day can help you release thoughts and emotions that are causing you stress. Write from the position of an observer, recording your thoughts without any judgments. Just write it down so that you can see clearly what is going on inside. The next step is to identify the source of any anger or stress so you can begin to make changes. Looking into your thoughts give you the opportunity to gain insight into your feelings and reflect the underlying issues.
5. Unblock tension with exercise
The constant pressures of your job and family can lead to chronically elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which is a direct cause of muscle and joint pain. Clenched jaw? Lump in your throat? Chronic back and neck pain? These can all be manifestations of stress in your body. Release physical tension and clear these emotional blockages by using massage therapy, exercise, yoga, tai chi, or qi gong to get the circuits moving.
6. A Retreat to Avoid Burnout
Overloading your brain is a recipe for stress and health problems. Information overload is particularly harmful at midlife because we have less tolerance for stress, which can contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease. Press the "reset" button on yourself. Give yourself a retreat from the stresses of modern life. Take one day out of the seven-day week to minimize "screen" time. Don't watch TV, don't check email, and don't look at the news - it will be there tomorrow, and after a day of rest, you will be refreshed and ready to look at them.
7. Perspective from the Natural World
Use nature to reduce stress. Go outside, hike in the woods, walk on the beach, anything that puts you in contact with the natural world. It is difficult to feel stressed when you are surrounded by nature's abundance of vitality and wonder.
I hope you find the ways to have less stress! I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.
May you live long, live strong, and live happy!
A Loving Father
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Thursday, 23 October 08 - 10:29 PM (GMT +08:00) By Ces Catubay in Sari saring kwento |
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I was deleting some of my emails that were in my inbox for years. I have been keeping some forwarded emails that are worth reading. At a glance, I saw the folder labeled 'Inspiring Stories' - a compilation of inspirational stories forwarded by my friends. I opened the oldest email and read the touching story of a father and son. Reading this brings back a lot of memories when I used to be a 'teen'.
Spend few minutes of your time reading this old but meaningful story of 'A Loving Father'.
A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.
As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible.
Angrily, he raised his voice at his father and said, "With all your money, you give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy book.
Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him.
He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things. When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible, and began to turn the pages. As he read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope taped behind the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words ... PAID IN FULL.
The World’s Billionaires
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Friday, 17 October 08 - 02:03 PM (GMT +08:00) By Ces Catubay in Random Thoughts |
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Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world. According to forbes.com, Warren Buffet is now the wealthiest man alive - a friend and a bridge partner of Gates.
Here is the list of the top 10 richest man in the world as of 2008. Lucky for them to have lots of money. :)
1. Warren Buffett - Net Worth: $62.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: United States
Age: 77
Source: Berkshire Hathaway
Industry: Investments
An American investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He is one of the world's most successful investors and the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Often called the "Oracle of Omaha", Buffett is noted for his adherence to the value investing philosophy and for his personal frugality despite his immense wealth.
2. Carlos Slim Helu - Net Worth: $60.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: Mexico
Age: 68
Source: Telecom
Industry: Communications
A Mexican businessman largely focused on the telecommunications industry. Slim has a substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and much of Latin America as well. He controls Teléfonos de México (Telmex), Telcel and América Móvil companies. Though he maintains an active involvement in his companies, his three sons Carlos Slim Domit, Marco Antonio Slim Domit and Patrick Slim Domit head them on a day-to-day basis.
3. William Gates III - Net Worth: $58.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: United States
Age: 52
Source: Microsoft
Industry: Software
4. Lakshmi Mittal - Net Worth: $45.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: India
Age: 57
Source: Steel
Industry: Manufacturing
A London-based Indian billionaire industrialist, born in Sadulpur village, in the Churu district of Rajasthan, India, and resides in Kensington, London. The Mittal family owns a controlling majority stake in ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company.
5. Mukesh Ambani - Net Worth: $43.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: India
Age: 50
Source: Petrochemicals
Industry: Manufacturing
He is an Indian businessmanthe chairman, managing director and the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector enterprise and a Fortune 500 company. His personal stake in Reliance Industries is 48%. His wealth is valued at US$43 billion (according to Forbes), making him the fifth richest man in the world and the richest in Asia. Mukesh and younger brother Anil are sons of the late founder of Reliance Industries, Dhirubhai Ambani. Mukesh also owns the Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians.
6. Anil Ambani - Net Worth: $42.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: India
Age: 48
Source: Diversified
Industry: Diversified
Ambani is the chairman of Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications and Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Energy, and was formerly Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited. His personal stake in Reliance Communications is 66%. Reliance group is India's largest business house, founded by Anil's late father Dhirubhai Ambani (1938-2002). His mother is Kokilaben Ambani. He is married to Tina Ambani (Munim) who was a well known Indian Actress in early 80's, and with whom he has two sons, Jai Anmol and Jai Anshul. He has been linked with buying Newcastle United and Everton premier league football clubs.
7. Ingvar Kamprad - Net Worth: $31.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: Sweden
Age: 81
Source: Ikea
Industry: Retailing
Ingvar Feodor Kamprad is a Swedish entrepreneur who is the founder of the home furnishing retail chain IKEA. The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name (Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born; and the nearby village Agunnaryd.
8. KP Singh - Net Worth: $30.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: India
Age: 76
Source: Real Estate
Industry: Real Estate
Presides over DLF Universal Limited, India’s largest real estate developer. It has an estimated land bank of 10,255 acres (42 km2) with about 3,000 acres (12 km²) being in prime city locations such as Delhi NCR, Chandigarh and Kolkata.
9. Oleg Deripaska - Net Worth: $28.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: Russia
Age: 40
Source: Russian Aluminum
Industry: Diversified
A Russian billionaire, and a member of the Board of Directors of UC Rusal, a Russian aluminium industry company. Deripaska is the sole owner and a Chairman of the Supervisory board of Basic Element, a diversified investment company established in 1997 with assets in Russia and abroad. Basic Element's main assets are concentrated in six sectors - Energy, Resources, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Construction and Aviation.
10. Karl Albrecht - Net Worth: $27.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: Germany
Age: 88
Source: Aldi
Industry: Retailing
A German entrepreneur who founded the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his brother Theo. Karl and Theo Albrecht were raised in modest circumstances in Essen. Their father was employed as a miner and later as a baker’s assistant. Their mother had a small grocery store in the worker’s quarter of Schonnebeck. Theo completed an apprenticeship in his mother’s store, while Karl worked in a delicatessen shop. Karl also served in the German Army during World War II. After the end of World War II, the brothers took over their mother's business (1946). The first Aldi (Albrecht-Discount) was opened in 1961.
10 Brain Damaging Habits
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Monday, 13 October 08 - 11:42 PM (GMT +08:00) By Ces Catubay in Health and Beauty |
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The brain is the center of our nervous system. It controls the body temperature, blood pressure, the heart, breathing, physical motion, thinking, emotions and basically everything that we do. All of the tasks are coordinated and regulated by the organ that is about the size of a small cauliflower – the brain.
Oftentimes, we are not aware that there are some activities that we do that can hurt our brain. It is important that we should be aware of the different habits that can damage our body’s big boss.
- No Breakfast - People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.
- Overeating - It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.
- Smoking - It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.
- High Sugar Consumption - Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.
- Air Pollution - The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.
- Sleep Deprivation - Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.
- Head covered while sleeping - Sleeping with the head covered, increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.
- Working your brain during illness - Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.
- Lacking in stimulating thoughts - Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.
- Talking Rarely - Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.
Faceyourmanga: Create your avatar on the web!
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Wednesday, 08 October 08 - 11:38 AM (GMT +08:00) By Ces Catubay in Techie |
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Once finished, your avatar will be delivered right on your mailbox by providing a valid email address. If you are worrying if they will spam your email, you can choose to save the image by right-clicking on the finished avatar and save it right on your computer. I haven’t received any spam yet so I believe they are spam-free!
See this avatar on the left? That’s what I’ve done using faceyourmanga. Still it has some differences with how I look but it is fairly acceptable. How do you think you will look like if you are a manga character? See it yourself and give it a try.Mama Mia: How Can I Resist You?
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Monday, 06 October 08 - 07:14 PM (GMT +08:00) By Ces Catubay in Random Thoughts |
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After the successful stage musical comes the film adaptation of the book of Catherine Johnson. Mama Mia, a comedy-drama, is based on the songs of pop group ABBA.
It is about the story of an independent single mom Donna (Meryl Streep) who raised her daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) alone on a beautiful island of Kalkairi in Greece. Donna runs Villa Donna, taking no day-offs from repairing and maintaining the small hotel. Sophie is about to marry her fiancé Sky (Dominic Cooper), with a Greek celebration on their small town. She secretly invites Sam, Harry and Bill, the three men whom her mom had an affair. She suspects that one of them could be her father that she has been searching all her life.
Playing to be a film critic, I can say that the movie is fun but can’t get a two thumbs up. I like the way that they were able to connect the songs of ABBA as the lines of the characters. I love how the stories within the story were delivered. Specially the part when Donna and the Dynamites sung ‘Dancing Queen’ with the girls of Greece. I had goose bumps while I was watching them sing it. They were successful to bring the message to their audience – that girl power spirit every woman has even if she has wrinkles on her face, fats all over her body and has seen her better days.
I was disappointed on the wedding ceremony of Sophie though. I was expecting it to be the highlight of the film but the scene was spoiled when the Donna interrupted the priest to introduce Sophie’s father. That was annoying because it can’t happen on a real wedding. I won’t go into details of the movie, see it and you might have a different opinion.
All in all you will enjoy the film. You will find yourself tapping your foot and smiling while watching. Like what Joe Baltake, a Passionate Moviegoer, said 'Mamma Mia!' Is Like Taking a Tiny Vacation.
... More items are available in my News Archive
