Incline your ear to wisdom

Whoa! Looks like Tblog improved tremendously since I last posted. I'm also glad that I still see familiar blogs out here.
Here are some updates on me since my last post:

1. Our vacation in the Philippines went well. It was the first time we went home without my dad. I miss him still but I fully accepted his death now. Such loss only reminds me how fragile and fleeting this life is.

2. We had our new baby, its......a girl! I named her Erika, after my dad who's name is Eric. It also rhymes with her big sister's name Annika.

3. My work has been pretty stressful lately. A lot of problems with the computer software I'm supporting. Oh well, some people call it job security. I'm still loving the travel opportunity, though.

Just a quick note here, I haven't blogged for eons.

Here are some things I'm thankful for:

1.  Our upcoming vacation in the Philippines this December and part of January (6 weeks)

2.  Our 2nd baby!  Yes we are pregnant, we don't know the gender yet but I'll keep you posted.

3.  Remaining healthy as wel as my family.

4.  We became US citizens last month.  God bless America.

5.  I like my work better now.  I'm pretty busy most of the day and I like it that way.

How about you?  Please leave a note here though I'll be changing blog soon.

Just want everyone to know I'm ok.  And again, thank you for those of you who check on my blog periodically.  I've been swamped by work, specially travel.  We have just returned from Orlando.  My baby was so thrilled to meet the princesses and the other Disney characters.  I will visit your blogs soon, but I would appreciate it if you could give me a brief update about you as a comment to this post.

I am contemplating on moving to another site, like my friend mnash.

I hope every one is ok, specially those who had been affected by the hurricanes.  Rest assured, you are all in my prayers.

Sincerely,

the seeker

Four states in four days.  That's where I was from Monday to Thursday.  It was an exciting, but exhausting trip.  Exciting because I learned a lot, exhausting because of the schedule.

Utah to Illinois.  I asked my wife to take me to the airport very early.  I rather wait than be late for the flight.  My boss (yes it was a business trip) caught me reading the book I Blog, Therefore I am.  Curious pronounciation of blog, "I see you're reading those bee-logs".  "They're also called blogs", was my mild correction.  It was great to read other tBloggers in the book: Finalyfree (yes 1 L), gfak40, Rand, Billlyryan (yes 3 L's), basild and many others.  I'd like to recommend this book because one of my posts is in page 60, but I have to warn you it might be a disappointment if you expect too much.  A lot of it are written by  teenagers trying to commit suicide or imbibing huge amounts of liquor and drugs.  Like the pool of blogs here in Tblog, you have to search for the good stuff.  And there are a lot of them too.

We also had a little discussion on what's happening in New Orleans.  He's kinda ticked off that other countries were not quick to help.  The total opposite of how the US reacts when there's a calamity elsewhere in the world.  I told him that France and surprisingly, Cuba offered personnel.  Also, they might be thinking that we can fend for ourselves, which is actually true.  But it's a nice morale booster to see the offers, albeit even as a courtesy.  We both agreed that those looters, muggers and rapers should be shot on sight, it is just abominable to take advantage of people who are already suffering.  It is very encouraging to see both celebrities and ordinary people chipping in every way they can to help.  I really hope every evacuee finds a job in the state they land and start rebuilding their shattered lives.

Our flight was delayed 30 minutes because they decided to wait for people coming from Canada.  It was the last flight out of Salt Lake City and they don't want them to get stuck in here.  In the flight, the captain announced that we will be trying to make up the time by flying faster.  Is he going over the speed limit?  Is there a fighter jet up there that will pull us over and give him a ticket?  Nah, just getting bored from reading about these kids trying to kill themselves.  If you are one of them reading this post, take heart, pray to God, realize that everyone even adults go through these sense of meaninglessness.  You were created for a reason.  You are not a mistake, God doesn't make them.

To be continued....

4.  AVOID BUYING ON CREDIT

  I don't believe in borrowing from credit cards.  (For convenience, I use one card to pay the whole amount at the end of each month.)  If I need something really bad, I save up for it.  Sometimes, at midpoint, I realize I don't really need the darn thing and give up the whole idea.  The only exception I feel we should enter into credit is when buying a non-depreciating item, such as housing or land.  I believe we should always live within our earning capacity.

   Proverbs 22:7 says, "Those who borrow are slaves of moneylenders."

(I am what the credit card industry call a transactor.  I use my credit card for almost anything I buy, but I pay off the balance every month.  If you have the discipline to do that, a credit card is much better than a debit card because it is much easier to protect yourself from fraudulent charges.  With debit cards, the money is already gone and you need your bank to refund it.  With credit cards, you just report that its a fraudulent charge and you don't have to pay it.)

5.  GIVE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN
   If I content myself with $9.00 shirt instead of a $40.00 Polo shirt, I can help others more.  Trust me, there is immense pleasure!  You will find that the empty thrill of owning a diamond ring on your finger pales in comparison to the joy of handling a piece of bread to an orphan child.

   "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in good work." (2
Cor. 9:8 ).  The Old Testament of tithing, or giving 10% of your income is a good guideline to follow.  The New Testament challenges us to give with a cheerful heart.  (When you're cheerful, you may give more than 10%!)  Make it a habit.

We held a presentation for our church and guess what got featured?  Freedom of Simplicity by none other than Bo Sanchez.  Yes, if that name sounds familiar, it's because I have posted some of his writings here in my blog.  So here I'm gonna share another one, with some of my personal insights for each item in parentheses:

1.  LIVE ON LESS, AND DELIGHT IN THEM MORE

Some take their pleasure dining in classy restaurants, trips to Europe, and owning the latest home theatre-equipment.  I've chosen the simple path:

If I can simply be with my wife, or take a quiet stroll under a canopy of stars, or play with a child, or read a good book in my home, or laugh with friends over a pizza, I consider myself richly blessed.

"Focus on what you have and not on what you don't have."

(I think the quote above is easier said than done.  How our parents raised us bears a lot on our spending habits.  It would be hard to break a spending habit taught to us by our parents either conciously or subconciously.  If we had parents who gave us everything we asked without earning it by getting good grades or doing a household chore, then we are likely to think that we deserve everything we want, just because we can afford it, albeit going into debt.)

2. STOP RUNNING AND WALK INSTEAD

Here's the truth: The person who has covered the greatest distance DOES NOT win, but the one who has most enjoyed the journey does.  Stop running around chasing your own tail!

Get off your hurried pace and learn to breathe.  Replace doing with being.  Learn to say no to invitations, appointments, and commitments, activities and events that will rob you of your focus.
   Learn to say 'YES' to rest, to tranquility, to quietness.

(Remember, if you run the rat race, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose, you will still come out a rat.  If you remember, one of my hobbies is reading the obituaries.  Some of the most interesting out there are not the ones who have a long list of achievements, but the ones where you can feel the grief of the families and friends who lost them.  The ones where their anguish emanates from the very words they have written for and about their departed loved one.)

3.  YOU ARE MORE THAN YOUR WEALTH

   I own very few things today.  Because I am more than the brand of my watch, the logo of my shoes, the name of my car.  I believe that if in my soul I deeply respect and value myself, people around me will sense that, and they too, will value and respect me whether I am wearing Armani or not.  You are more than your wealth.

(You often see people with their cars out in the curbs although they have two-car garages.  It is not difficult to guess what the reason for this seemingly peculiar sight.  Either they have more cars than people living in the house, or they have too much stuff that they use their garage as a storage for all the clutter they have accumulated in years)

To be continued....

I'm back, again.

On the first part of my explanation to my relatively long absence, I said that one of the reasons is that our computer crashed.  Thankfully, the harddrive was still intact and we were able to recover all the data.  We had to reinstall all the programs though.

They told me it might cost us $600 to repair it, and that's not including the $120 they'll charge me just to look at it.  So...we just decided to buy a new pc, a laptop actually.  We were thinking of buying one when the computer croaks anyway.  We want something that we can take to the Philippines when we go on vacation there.

So, we bought this Toshiba laptop.  The reason I picked it is because the brand is one of the well known brand in terms of functionality and customer satisfaction.  But, and that's a big but (like JLo's, hehe), it doesn't guarantee anything.  You can still get a lemon, and sure enough, we got one.  After about 10 days, the dang thing wouldn't work.  The on button was stuck, and because it has a battery, it wouldn't turn off.  Despite that, the screen is just blank!

I work in the Information Technology industry but I'm really starting to hate technology.  We took it to CompUSA and they were gracious enough to replace it with a brand new one (you have 21 days, and I bought a 2 year warranty).  It's all good again, except that we have to load all our software and data again.  That's one of the advantages of buying software with a disc over downloading it through the web.  You can easily reinstall them if your computer breaks.

Then ya'll know about my ISP travails.  AOL gives me 4 Kbps connection.  I was literally reading a book while surfing the internet.  As most of you know, they offer 3 months free, but the service is intolerable.  So we decided to PeoplePC.  I'm connected right now at 37 Kbps (you with DSL, you can stop laughing now).  I know it's not blazing fast, but its ok.  I can blog again!