Chibilicious - Having my own small, cute world is great

photo credit: nyki_m

When I went home last night, I was surprised to see our street intersection blocked off by a big ‘tolda’ (tent). Usually, that tent is lent by the barangay hall to residents if there is a big event like a birthday party, a street gathering or a mourning event like a wake. The tolda was being installed when I saw it so I had no idea of what was happening. I learned from my dad later after dinner that our long time neighbor, Aleng Mameng, died.

I felt mildly surprised and later a bit nostalgic when I heard the news. I didn’t know why I felt so mild about it when Aleng Mameng was one of the longest living residents in our area. She was also a friend of my grandmother. I often saw her as a kid, watering the plants outside the house or talking to one of her grandchildren. When I started working, I rarely saw her outside as she was already old and rather stayed indoors. It was a sad realization to think that all of my life, I never really had a long conversation with her. I don’t even remember the last time I exchanged words with her since I stopped playing with her grandchildren before I graduated from elementary.

Now she’s gone and I don’t know what to think about it. Why is it being close to neighbors within the city is harder compared to those in the provinces?

Aleng Mameng, please take your much needed rest now. You have done a lot. It’s time to be with God.

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The weirdest thing happened over the weekend. Last Saturday afternoon, as I was scanning a manga for Aerandria, a noisy cat’s fight happened on our roof. There was a race, yowling noises, I presume scratches from the threatening meows I heard. It went for a few seconds then bam! Complete silence. I didn’t mind it since cats roam the neighborhood.

The next day, I took my dog, Lia on a walk by the backyard. I had to hold on her leash because the ground was wet from constant rays and the last thing I want is for her to roll and play over the mud and dirty her perfectly white fur. We were on our way to the area of my dad’s boarders when we both stopped and saw this still cat lying under the bench of the boarder’s reception area. It was dead. My dog tried to sniff at it but I yanked her away afraid of any germs Lia might get. I took a stick to poke on the cat’s body to make sure it was dead. Sympathy washed over as the body was very cold and wet. Its body has no blood or scratches. It looked like it died of the cold. Armed with a plastic bags to cover my hand and to place the cat into, I gingerly went into the business of removing the cat under the bench and let my dad throw it away somewhere.

Sunday evening, my dad told me that another cat was found dead at the same area at midday that day. Wet and cold body, no scratches, dead. It was weird… and freaky. I don’t easily believe any superstition about dead cats but that got me thinking of what it could possibly mean.

*freaked out*

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photo credit: srqpix

NOTE: The following are summaries of articles I have read from various sources and anecdotes. Even I have been recently researching the Internet for ways to gain financial independence. In doing so, I have compiled quite a number of materials of study. With this, I would like to share insights I have found and put into layman’s language everything I understood and I hope these would help financial-independence searchers get the inspiration they need for financial freedom.

It is an understatement to say that there are a lot of people in the world. There are already too much! I have heard somewhere though that in reality, there are enough resources for everyone. The problem lies in the unequal distribution of these resources that is why some have too many and others don’t have anything at all.

In an ideal world, everyone would live comfortably. There would be no financial stress, economic downfalls, currency fluctuations, etc. There are books stating it is not all terribly difficult for people in good health to make money. In our modern world there are just too many niches and market holes to provide opportunity and new vocations open up for everyone, any gender who is willing to engage in any respectable work for the time being may find lucrative employment.

It will entail hard work, sacrifice and motivation to get a certain level of independence but it is possible once people put their minds into it. But as any teacher in our society would say, you only have to put your mind into it, and adopt the proper means as you would desire anything else in the world and the deed would be easily done.

The hardest thing for every financial-freedom looking individual is to keep money. Agree right? The simplest solution we can think of is to spend less that what we earn. Most of us think that if we have some money left from our salary to stash in our banks, we are the happiest of mortals to have a bit for a rainy day. That is simple economy.

But a lot of people don’t realize a hole in this simple theory for individuals do the simplest mistake too.

Example, let’s take Man A and Man B. They both have high salaries. Yet every year, Man B gets something ahead and Man A falls short. Man A thinks he understands saving but he does not. The real scenario is, Man A cuts off expense to clothing, transportation and a bit of food allowance but squanders the left money to some gadgets and gizmos. He thinks squandering his supposed to be savings on gadgets as rewards for himself is beneficial when in it otherwise since he doesn’t really need those stuff at all. That is the common mistake we often make. We fancy we are so wonderfully economical in saving a
that we think we can afford to squander in other directions.

I AM GUILTY TOO. (eep!)

Or maybe, you are a female who spends less for transportation. You take busses instead of cabs or you walk a few blocks to save on some cash. You don’t eat much since you are keeping your figure. You don’t dine out since you know how to cook. I bet you have quite a stash but the problem starts when you buy every branded clothes and make-up you could put your hands on. Now hardly anyone will get rich with that kind of attitude.

Hardly anyone will succeed with this kind of attitude. I know. I’m in my mid-20s and I haven’t got much asset to say I own. I had my time of happy go lucky spending days as a yuppie. Now, I have really have to start saving for things I need and want as well as financially help around house expenses.

True economy would consist in making the income exceed the expenses. Old clothes could be worn longer with proper laundry. Live on house cooked food rather than constantly dining outside. If you could take a bus instead of a cab to go to work, do so. A penny here, and a dollar there, placed at interest, goes on accumulating, and in this way
desired result is attained.

This would indeed require training and self-discipline but when one gets used to it, there will be more satisfaction for simple but comfortable living.

There is a recommended exercise by financial experts that could be a cure for unconscious extravagance each one of us may be undertaking. When you find you have no savings at the end of the year, and yet you have good income, you could take a few sheets of paper (or have a notebook) and mark down every item of expenditure. Post everyday or week in two columns, one headed ‘necessaries’ and the other ‘luxuries’. You will find that the latter column will be double or triple the length of your former. The real comforts in life cost but a small portion of what most of us can earn.

Maybe you could take on some advice from this video I found in youtube:

So think, what are your luxuries that you could live without? Maybe, these are the things that you could stash in an investment of savings for your future. As for me, I admit I have to cut down the amount of food I buy outside. I tend to try out a lot of food once I see something very appetizing. Now, I have to learn to control myself to cut off that luxury expense.

What are your luxury expenses that you think you could cut off?

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photo credit: Alessandro Perilli

Thank you very much everyone for your comments on a recent post regarding the SONA (year 2008). Such reactions depict the feeling of most Filipinos regarding SONA promises put into stone. Most of us (Filipinos), currently does not believe anything the government says and it’s a sad reality to show the world how much we demean our own government. Much as I would like to blame everything to the government, I can’t help but think there are other factors involved for such issues to happen.

One of them, in the perspective of a global scale, is Economics. Global economy is not held by one system. Oil price hikes, world trades, decreasing dollar value, etc. These things work in their own way and each country in the world is affected by it. If you think about it, an individual’s first and foremost motto is to survive. Each individual doesn’t want to be striked down by these changes and as human beings, we tend to do what it takes even against the code of our morals to get the necessities and wants that constitutes our lifestyle. Yes, we all hate gamblers, thieves, prostitutes, drug lords, beggars, etc. But can we blame all of them for the lack of education that was deprived of them due to poverty? Can we blame them if they needed bread on their table and money isn’t with them to bring them that? Can we blame them if they love their children or family too much to risk their lives just to feed them? Can we blame them if we, the better-off, often ignore their existence when they ask for a bit of help?

I bet you are thinking, blame the government. They are not doing their job well. They are all corrupt, greedy political individuals using their positions to garner a large percentage of country funds for personal needs.

Time and again, yes, that is true. Even I believe that one time or another especially since my Dad is one of those who absolutely detest the workings of our government. Do you think though, that these corrupt officials are doing these things because they were born to do so? I don’t think so. I think they are also doing this to survive, and because of this instinct, this brings us to the second factor of my opinion, which is Temptation.

Admit it, you would have done something in the past that could be wrong but still you pursued it to get what you want or get out of a situation. A lot have done that. All of us did. I know people who are very hardworking, loyal, loving to their families, persevering, intellectual, etc. But if worse comes to worse and they can do something to make up for a mistake or a situation, they will do it.

Example, this may seem mild but it can prove my explanaton above. I know people, who as students, persevered hard to get good or at least average grades in school. They do their best while taking on part-time jobs to help their families. I know someone who failed an RTC course. He needed a good grade badly and to make good use of his ‘people’ skills, he went to the faculty lounge of his RTC officers, told of his situation and discreetly handed them a bottle of fine wine. You know what his teachers did? They changed his grade on the spot. This student got his grade and his teachers got free wine. Everybody happy right? But I bet you are thinking that it is “WRONG” and “UNFAIR” for the students who worked really hard. But the student needed the grade badly and even if it is against his usual character to do such things, he was tempted to do it.

In a work situation, common scenario is a group finishing a project. When a project goes very well, the team leader would usually get all the praise and some would not give credit to their team mates, who could have done equal or even more load of the work. This leader may take on a promotion and his team mates could be left behind. He could have placed in a bit of credit to his team mates to at least give a share of the reward, even if it is not a promotion. These things do happen. The team leader may have not meant to forget his team mates but may have badly needed the promotion to fend for family or loved one that needed his financial support. We all know that human love knows no boundaries and would do anything for the people they love.

We may have called it differently such as ‘utak’ or ‘diskarte’. In most cases, these situations may seem little things since not much harm is done as we see it. It’s a small thing but it is wrong. Yet, it is our own survivial we are fighting for. I tend to think that our politicians didn’t start out ‘evil’ as we think. They were aslo tempted to fight or attain a way of living.

Yes, most of them are wrong but we haven’t reach done much but complain haven’t we? There are already a lot of group protestors to take on the fights against the government but their action of rallying across streets are becoming now more of annoyance than help. Most of us do not seem to notice what they are fighting for and still complain. If us, the better-sort, and I don’t mean the rich and famous, rather those who could eat three times a day, attend school or already graduated, have a roof on our heads, can go to the mall once in a while, etc., could do more than just complain, then maybe there could be some improvement in our way of living or in our government.

How about teaching children the virtue of hard-work and good moral conducts? How about teaching them the value of helping others? How about we put into our system the value of giving a bit to the poor and charities to lessen beggars found on the streets? How about giving a bit of our salary to educational systems that help children with no education to learn?

There are ways with us sharing a bit even if we don’t have to work much. I, for one, am now trying to find a charity I could give a bit of my money. You could try to do the same. I just found a list here.

Some of the charities listed are the ff:
1 Springboard Foundation
2 SOS Children’s Villages in the Philippines
3 The Purple Rose Campaign
4 ReachOut Foundation International
5 Philippine Children’s Fund of America
6 People’s Recovery Empowerment Development Assistance or Preda
7 Loving Care Street Kids Foundation
8 Bahay Bata Center, Angeles City
9 Visayan Forum Foundation
10 Buklod Center
11 Tingog sa Kabataan
12 Salvation Army
13 ECPAT Philippines
14 CHILDHOPE ASIA PHILIPPINES
15 Tambayan Center
For more charities, go here.

I also found this video in youtube depicting “Buhay Pinoy”, maybe with these, it could help you a charity to help if you are willing to do so.

I also think this video shows how much us Filipinos complain when we lack discipline in ourselves and how much we ignore our poor brothers and sisters.

As a final note, let us not complain too much anymore of how things are. How about trying to find ways as Filipinos to better our lives and our future. Teach our children proper values so our future leaders would be righteous and good. Give a bit to the needy to lessen povery. Let us all be brothers and sisters as Filipinos for a better future.

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