How to be a Chinese

Photo Courtesy of kconnors | Morguefile

The Chinese culture has been part of the earliest civilizations in the world. Due to its roots that can be traced back from ancient times, the Chinese culture has continued to refine itself into a rich, awesome, distinct, and superior state that it is known today.

China has the largest population in the world, but the Chinese are not only limited within their land's borders. The Chinese people can be found in many different countries, and instead of mingling with the rest of the people, they have established their own districts in foreign countries as can be witnessed by the existing Chinatowns around the world.

Continue Reading: How to be a Chinese

My First Christmas Gift from Squidoo

For these past few months, I've been busy writing on Squidoo, a great platform for budding online writers. I used to write on Hubpages, but since my Adsense account was closed by Google (see story here), earning in Hubpages became impossible. So I've migrated my articles to Squidoo, which doesn't require writers to own Adsense accounts.

How to Save Money

Saving money is not as hard as you would think. It is a habit that everyone needs to learn. Once you acquire this habit, it becomes easier. With the right attitude, spending habits, and knowledge, you will get closer to your financial goal. 

Getting Started: My Journey towards Saving Money

I was taught about the habit of saving at a young age. Now that I'm an adult, I still continue to save. Saving has been a rewarding experience to me. Because of my savings, I was able to help pay a portion of my tuition in High school when my parents were financially down. I was also able to ease my parents' burden by taking part of my savings instead of asking them for my allowance. So saving for me is filial piety too. Now, I am even planning to help pay for part of the downpayment for my parents' dream car.

Christmas Gift Idea: Beauty Products

Running out of ideas for Christmas gifts for your mom, sister, or female friend? Buying them beauty products might just be the perfect solution to your problem. Remember the times when you were on a tight budget? Despite that financial hardship, you still managed to buy a tube of lipstick, right? This just shows how every woman values beauty. Using beauty products is a way of pampering yourself in an affordable way. This Christmas, why not treat your loved ones as well with these skin care products?

Anonymous Proxy Server

©o5com | Flickr

Hackers nowadays are very clever. They could easily get personal information from unsuspecting Internet users by the way these users surf the web. Being in the virtual world under a different surname and fake avatar doesn't mean that our identity is forever safe. There are some other precautions we need to take when we go online. In this post, I would talk about using anonymous proxy servers as one of the several ways to help us secure our identity.

Continue reading the full article on All About Computers.

How to Improve Laptop's Performance

If your laptop is becoming sluggish, you may want to upgrade some parts. But that isn't always necessary. Chances are, you can still improve your laptop's performance by just tweaking your system's configurations without replacing or adding some hardware.

Here is a compilation of tweaks that you could apply on your computer. I've tried these tweaks on my 4-year-old laptop. My laptop did improve. Take note, these steps are specifically for Vista and Windows 7. So if your laptop is running XP, the steps required may be slightly different. A word of caution: Create a restore point on your system first before attempting to make any changes on your system. (Continue reading on All About Computers)

BB Cream: An Alternative to Traditional Makeup

©earthlydelights | Flickr

My mother used to tell me that makeup is bad for the skin. During the occasions that I had to wear makeup though, my face would get so irritated. The next day my face would be covered with tiny, red bumps. That only confirmed my mother's words that makeup is bad. Thus, I grew up having the same perceptions and had avoided wearing makeup as much as possible.(Continue reading at Serious Skin Care Blog)

9 Ways to Stay Away from Hackers, Spyware, and Viruses

I admit that I’m not a Computer Wizard, yet using a computer since I was 8 years old without a brother to fix it when it went wrong had forced me to learn everything I can to care for my computer. So yeah, maybe I’m the “technician” when it comes to my family.

I have noticed that many users I know have little or no knowledge about computer protection. Especially now that almost everyone with a computer has internet access, having the necessary protection is a must. Internet is a good place to get freebies. You get to download songs, music videos, movies, e-books, games, and softwares – you name it. But just as much as there are goodies in the internet, so do the bad stuff – Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Malwares, and Spywares. What’s more scary is that since the advent of wifi, more and more users have become connected to a computer network. One attack by the bad guys and all the computers connected are doomed. But don’t despair; you don’t have to be a computer wizard to be able to have a secured computer or a secured network. Everyone can learn. Here are some of the guidelines you could follow to help protect your computer. (Continue reading on All About Computers).

Aging Gracefully

Photo by Ambro via Freedigitalphotos.net

I came across a yearbook of my mom's friend - a sixty-year anniversary book to be specific. What's special about it is that in addition to the students' black and white solo pictures taken during the year of the graduation were the photos of the students taken after sixty years. (Continue reading on Serious Skin Care Blog)

App for Chinese Learners

The Chinese Language is an old language. It has several characters and these the learner need to memorize. To me, Chinese is simpler to learn compared to English and other European languages. It has no grammar and the sentence structure is very simple. It has no verb tenses nor subject-verb agreement to worry about. To be good in this language, you only need to practice it a lot, and of course, building vocabulary words is important. (Continue reading on Everything Chinese).

Uniqlo is coming to the Philippines!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

If you have already visited Mall of Asia (MOA) for these past few months, you may have noticed several stores undergoing renovations. Many of these shops were even relocated from one place to another within the mall. This is to give way to some larger stores coming their way. I've seen Forever21 starting its way to the spots formerly occupied by Our Home and Toy Kingdom. Imagine, these two pretty huge stores were combined to accommodate Forever21. I could already imagine several girls flocking into the store on its first day.

Another store that is coming to MOA is Uniqlo (which will be located at 2nd level of main mall). Uniqlo is a store that sells both menswear and womenswear at very affordable prices. This is going to be the very first branch to open in Manila. I used to shop in Uniqlo when I was in Japan and Hong Kong. I have bought several wardrobe essentials there. The quality of the goods are impressive and given at a reasonable price. When I first learned about the new branch that is coming to MOA, I couldn't help but feel excited. I am definitely going to that store to buy more of my wardrobe essentials.

While I was strolling in the main mall of MOA yesterday, I was approached by one of the Uniqlo staffs scattered outside the still-under-construction store. They were having this marketing campaign with Facebook as their platform. So the staff asked me to log in to my account as I was ushered to one of their iPad stations. I was then prompted to vote for my favorite T-Shirts or UT that was shown in their Facebook app. A person could only vote twice within 24 hours, and a chance to win a T-Shirt on the spot. What's more is that when the T-Shirt you've voted received the highest number of votes at the end of the campaign, you get a chance to win a trip to Japan for two! Too bad I didn't win anything yesterday.

Now, I'm at home trying my luck again. I had more chance to look closely at the T-Shirts. I think what Uniqlo did is a great marketing strategy. The voting system allows users to look at the wonderful designs of their products. I am already tempted to buy some of those shirts if I didn't win a shirt. I can't wait for its grand opening at June 15, 2012.

To learn more about the products, visit their website:

http://www.uniqlo.com

Like their Facebook page and vote for your favorite UT for a chance to win a shirt and a trip for Japan for two.

http://www.facebook.com/uniqlo.ph

Tagged: 11 Questions about Myself

Photo by Valerie Everett | Flickr

Good day to everyone! A few days ago, I was tagged by my Blogger friend Judy to answer some questions about myself. Here are my answers:

1.How long have you been blogging?
I started my online writing venture on Hubpages a year ago, and a few months after, I tried Blogger. It was around September of last year that I decided to focus more on Blogger.

2. Are you a procrastinator or do you take care of things right away?
Yes I procrastinate things and I'm not proud of it. I just often see time as very flexible so I always end up not doing things within the time frame.

3. If you have siblings, are you close?
I have an identical twin who I am very close to. We are inseparable and we share a lot of common interests. She is my lifetime best friend.

4. What's the best thing about your job? the worst?
My job pays better compared to the average salary, but it is boring.

5. If you had $1,000 to spend on anything you wanted, what would you buy?
I would spend it on a vacation with my family.

6. How long has it been since you visited your hometown?
I never left my hometown and am still residing here.

7. Have you decorated for Easter/Spring? please share pictures.
No.

8. Do you sleep with a fan on?
Sometimes, when I forget to turn it off. Usually, I turn on the air-con while sleeping, not the fan. A fan wouldn't be enough to keep me cool during the hot summer.

9. The beach or the mountains?
Mountains. I love trees and the sight of them is very soothing.

10. If you had to choose only one which would you pick: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or blogging?
I am torn between Facebook and blogging. Facebook has allowed me to communicate with my old friends who I am unable to meet regularly. On the other hand, blogging has taught me a lot of things and I have met a lot of interesting bloggers/writers through this experience.

11. When shopping, do you use coupons or shop around for the best deal?
Unfortunately in our country, we don't have coupons for shopping, if not rarely. But I am very avid to the rewards system for credit card holders. Through this system I was able to avail many items on a discounted price.

Now, I am going to tag some blogger friends to answer the questions above! I hope that those who get tagged would enjoy answering these questions as much as I did. Happy blogging!

Krazy Monkey Tale
Miss Independent Mind
Musings of Mom2Four
PaLiiTs in Blogosphere
Sweetest Tales
Mommy Fleur

My Bucket List: Revisit Japan

One thing I've been yearning for since childhood is to go to Japan. I've finally made it, but would still go back there some time. The country is so rich in culture and tradition. In fact, there is a word specifically made for the study of Japanese culture - Japanology. I've never seen so many shows delving into a country's tradition as much as in Japan (at least among those that I am aware of.) I think it is because of the many peculiarities of the culture that foreigners find so intriguing.

There are still so many things to look forward to on my next visit. I would like to go to Ghibli museum and Sanrio Land. I would like to buy Anime merchandise or simply window shop to see their many cute products. I would like to taste some authentic sashimi and ramen. I wish that someday I would bring my special someone and have a picnic with him under the Cherry blossoms tree. Endless of things to do there. Meanwhile, check the articles below to know more about our travel experiences there, written by my twin sister cheerfulnuts:


Cheerfulnuts in the Tokyo Subway: Her Adventure from Shinjuku to Shibuya with Seriousnuts

Where to Go in Japan: Cheerfulnuts' Experience in the Land of the Rising Sun

An Important Advice for Travelers: Pee Whenever You Have the Chance

My Bucket List: Own a Dog

© Olga Vasilkova | Dreamstime.com

I've heard several stories of animals both good and bad, but the good stories of heroism and love prevail. I always see dogs as four-legged guardian angels. You take good care of them and they will always repay you with kindness tenfold to what you have given to them. They are capable of loving you above themselves, even if it means risking their lives.

When I was a little child, I was fearful of dogs. Even those furry and cuddly type of dogs scared me. I was paranoid that they were going to bite me. Whenever I got to see a dog, the dog always seemed to be very excited. That was kind of scary to me. Of course, I came to realize that they just wanted to play, and not harm me. I don't know how and exactly when, but I came to love dogs and craved to cuddle them.

I started watching Animal Planet shows and would find myself saying "awwwwww" a lot of times when a dog shows up on screen. I really wish I could have a dog as my very own pet. I never had the luxury to own one. Whenever I would go to houses of my friends who have dogs, I would play with their pets. I find great joy accompanying them even though they aren't my pets.

Someday, I would own a dog. Now isn't the right time yet. I would rather be patiently waiting, than grab the moment and not be able to give the best for my dog. To have a pet dog is one of the things in my bucket list.

Below is a video about a dog who was rescued and brought to a new home. It's nice, and I'm glad that the dog found a happy ending. I'm sure that she would be forever grateful to the people behind her rescue. When you are kind to dogs, they always know it. Happy viewing.

Tribute to a Chinese Legend: The Hat-Wearing Diva Feng Fei Fei

Photo taken from whatsonjinan.com

While the world was mourning for the international singer Whitney Houston's death, the Eastern Part of the world was also mourning for a well-known Taiwanese singer's death. The singer was Feng Fei Fei (鳳飛飛), an award-winning legend also known as the hat-wearing diva. She died of lung cancer at age 58.

She died on January 3, 2012, but news of her death was only announced several days after. Before her death, she insisted to her lawyer to not let him disclose about her death until after Chinese New Year, which was celebrated on January 23. She did not want her fans to be saddened by her death during the New Year celebration as she believed it would bring bad luck.

I wasn't aware of this wonderful legend's name until I started seeing her tributes being shown on most Chinese TV stations. As her songs were being played, I realized that those familiar songs I heard were after all sung by her. She was indeed very famous and well-known among my mother's generation. Her songs were so famous that many mainstream artists performed her songs onstage, including the song in the following video.

My mom was of course saddened by this loss. Feng Fei Fei songs were already deeply ingrained within Chinese music. And to know about Chinese music is to know about her songs. Kudos to Feng Fei Fei for her contributions to the music industry. Her songs will surely remain in the hearts of her fans.

More Songs by Feng Fei Fei 

Let's All Feel the Love On Valentine's Day

Photo by phanlop88 via Freedigitalphotos.

Love is such a complex feeling that has inspired a myriad of researchers to study about it. On the physiological level, it has often been studied in relation to brain scans and neurotransmitters. On the sociological level, dating and marriage patterns are analyzed in order to decipher this complicated phenomenon. Even in literature, there is almost an infinite number of works depicting different perspectives on love.

Despite the complex nature of love, one thing is for sure: it is universal. Yet, it is expressed in different ways. The differences depend on the person's personality and culture. Some express it so openly as if they wanted to shout their feelings to the world. Others are more subtle. What's romantic depends on the person's country of origin. For instance, carrying a lady on the man's back is romantic in Japan and Korea, as it signifies that a man will take care of the woman forever. However, this same behavior is considered, if not offensive, childish to the Western counterpart.

It's Valentine's Day, and I'm quite sure that different people have different feelings on this day. I'm quite sure that even those with lovers would sometimes dread V-day as it is the time when expectations and pressures are imposed upon them. In our social networking era, lonely single people would feel even lonelier due to the continuous V-day related posts that appear on their feeds. Posts such as flowers and gifts received are very common in the news feeds around this time. Some are even very frank about their loneliness as could be seen in their status updates. I feel bad for them. This special day is not supposed to make people lonely.

Valentine's Day is so commercialized and highly focuses on romantic love. Yet, I believe that everyone is entitled to have their share on this celebration. After all, romantic love isn't the only form of love. Families and friends alike could also spend their time together during this special moment. May everyone feel the love today. Happy Heart's Day to you all!

Today I Learned #1: You Can Make Potato Chips Using a Microwave

**Author's Note: If you're familiar with the social bookmarking site called Reddit, then you've probably heard of a popular subreddit named TIL: Today I Learned. Under this category, you just provide a single sentence indicating a thing you have just learned about. In addition, you add a URL pointing to the source of your recent discovery. Anyway, I've been long gone to Reddit. And I've just come up with an idea to instead start my own TIL series within my blog (check out for the "Today I Learned" labels), and instead of putting it in a mere sentence, I would like to elaborate it in a paragraph or two.

So for my very first Today I Learned Post:

Today I Learned #1: You can make potato chips using a microwave.

Photo by Master isolated images via Freedigitalphotos.

I love potato chips. Whenever I go to the grocery stores, there is always a large bag of potato chips inside the push cart. However, I know that these treats are high in saturated fats. Some brands even contain too much salt and MSG. Although I'm aware of these unhealthy ingredients, I still buy the chips anyway. I just couldn't help it.

And then I came across an article where about making potato chips at home. Nope, you're not going to need a deep-fryer for that. In fact, the source I've found teaches an easy method that is a lot healthier than frying: through a microwave. Sounds simple right? I was awed to learn about this and was excited to try it as soon as I am able to buy some fresh potatoes. Click the link below where you could find the recipe located at the lower portion of the article.

http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/7-unexpected-uses-microwave-164800328.html

Will iBooks 2 Replace Our Conventional Textbooks?

Just this morning, I saw in the news about Apple's launch of iBooks 2. This app is available to iOS devices and will allow users to read textbooks interactively. The part that awed me the most is the visual aids found in the e-books. The pictures and diagrams could be brought to life just by tapping on them. Dragging a picture allows users to see the different angles of the object. Readers could gain much more understanding with the subject matter through the embedded videos laid across the e-books. These are the features I find to be lacking in our traditional textbooks. 2D diagrams aren't enough to illustrate a concept as abstract as those in chemistry. (Continue reading...)

Guide to a Healthy Home

Photo by Kittikun Atsawintarangkul via Freedigitalphotos

Personal care products, household cleaners, processed foods, pesticides - these are just some of the products of modern civilization. They may make our lives easier, but they also come with a price: our health. While some of the products may render harmless, still many others contain chemicals that are hazardous to our health especially when handled improperly. (Continue reading at Lifestyle for a Healthy Body.)

My Love for Stuffed Toys and Play Therapy

Photo by Dan/Freedigitalphotos.

When I was a little girl, I did not like to play with dolls. My sister would continually nag me to play Barbie dolls with her, to which I reluctantly give in. My sister's bed was overflowing with stuffed toys. Mine was just a few pillows and a neglected pink stuffed toy pushed to the very end of the bed. Perhaps it was because I was a very obedient daughter. My mom didn't want me to sleep beside dolls, for she believed that the fibers from the dolls might give me respiratory diseases. (Continue reading on Let's Talk About People.)