Something4Everything

Papaya extract, a natural exfoliant

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 18:09:00 +0000

Papain from papaya extract is an exfoliant. But it is also being marketed as a whitening agent. But it actually don't have any melanin blocking properties.

Papain actually is an engridient for meat tenderizers but when applied topically it can exfoliate our skin. The whitening part is just an added bonus. What happens when applied to the skin is, it makes all the dead tissues in our skin to be washed off exposing the new and whiter tissues thus giving you fairer skin.

In order then to maintain a fairer skin, one has to use sun block to prevent faster aging of skin tissues.

Here is a home made recipe you can do to extract papain from papaya fruits that you can apply to your skin.

Extract the papaya juice : Cut a green papaya fruit into chunks the size you can feed into a juicer. No need to peel it as most of the papain can be had from there. A freshly picked papaya works best. On your juicer, extract the juice.
Remove the remaining tiny bits that are on the juice : Get a piece of porous plastic and put all extracted juice in it and leave it to drip into a container. This will ensure that you are only left with the juice. Be patient as this will take time. I like to get a tall container with a wide mouth or opening and just cover it with the porous plastic making sure to make a pouche to contain all the juice which is great because as it drips,the juice goes straight into the container and you won't have to worry for it splashing out of the container.
Preserve your extract for future use : Close the lid of the container containing your extract and refrigerate it. This ensures that it will last longer and not get foul. When using, get just the amount needed using a clean scoop and immediately replace it inside the refrigerator. Note, do not place it inside the freezer as this will destroy the enzymes.
Use it for topical application : Apply a considerable amount and leave it on for 5 minutes or until dry then wash it off with clean room temperature water. No need to wash it with soap so some of the papain will still remains to work on your skin until your next bath. I like to apply it at night and in the morning, that is when I bath with soap.

Sauteed Chicken with Mayonnaise

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:10:00 +0000

I have invited friend of mine once to my home for dinner so they could taste my home cooked meal. And I choose to cook a dish I have tasted from a fastfood restaurant made out of chicken meat. I haven't actually got the exact same taste for for some reason it was quite tasty and my friends enjoyed it. One of them even asked for the recipe.

I told him told I will send him the recipe but never got the chance to do so. That is why I am making this blog post so I could share him the recipe and to all others interested with it as well.

Engridients (note that I am not very particular with measurements so just add as much you like on each engridients):

Chicken breast (boiled and chopped into very small pieces)

celery stalk (chopped into small pieces)

carrots (chopped into small pieces)

potato (chopped into small pieces)

mayonnaise

white onion (chopped into small pieces)

oil

salt and balck pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Pour oil into a heated wok and spread it through out the pan.

2. Saute onions until it becomes transparent then add the potato and carrots.

3. Continue stirring until cooked.

4. Add in the chicken and mix all the engridients. Continue stirring until all engrideints are well mixed and chicken is cooked.

5. Add in chopped celery stalk and stir until it is evenly distributed.

6. Reduce fire and cover for 2 minutes.

7. Remove from heat and add mayonnaise. Mix well.

8. Let it sit on the wok until it has cooled a little then serve.

Things to consider in buying toy gifts this Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 06:16:00 +0000

Our Children love to bite anything they can
grab on. Be more cautious in buying toys so
that it don't contain toxic substance.

Christmas is nearing and by now many are already out there buying gifts to be given away. And for most of us the easiest we could think of to give are toys and although our health department have been giving away advisories to be careful in buying toys, some of us are still at limbo on how to find which ones are safe to buy.

For example, advisories have been flying about that we avoid toys that contain toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic. So here are some tips that may help us in buying safer toys.

1. Look for on-site testing facilities. If available, ask if the item (toy) is tested safe. If not yet tested ask it to be tested.

2. Look at the labels and check if it contains any heavy metals or other toxic substance. If any of this is found better move along to the next toy.

3. Check for the stickers from your country's agency that monitors the safety of food and drugs. These stickers indicates that a product is safe as per their standard. If missing, it probably did not pass the agency's safety standards.

4. Check for loose paint. If the paint is found to be loose or if it gets rubbed off on hands, it is very likely that these contain heavy metals specifically lead. It is better to buy unpainted toys just to be safe.

5. Look also for age appropriate toys. When buying toys, consider to whom it will be given. For example, don't give a toy for 5 year old and above to a 3 year old and below as this may have small parts and may pose as a choking hazard. Remember that toddlers love to put anything in their mouths that they get a hold on to.

6. Pthalates on plastic toys. A lot of plastic toys contain this substance called pthalates. It is a substance to increase the elasticity of plastics that when ingested may lead to some health issues. Instead of plastic, consider buying wooden toys instead.

7. More expensive does not mean safer. Even toys from big companies are not immune to toxic toys as most of this companies subcontract these to other toy making company usually to the lowest bidder. Although big companies also have their quality check to protect their name but still look for the above mentioned items to be sure.

Now that you have your gifts bought, it is now time to gift wrap them. Advance Merry Christmas everyone!

Blogger's Dynamic Views - A bit of customization

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:26:00 +0000

When I first read about blogger's dynamic views I was a bit curious and wanted to try it out for my next project. The first time I tried it, I did liked it specially the Magazine view.

Tie up Thursday Wk2

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:50:00 +0000

See also:
Tie up Thursday Wk1

Soda Bottle Water Heater

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:44:00 +0000

Here is another video for reducing your power comsumption as well as your carbon footprint. This time it is using soda bottles arranged in series as a water heater.

This uses the same principle as a thermosiphon. It makes use of the fact that hot water is less bouyant than cold water and thus in the case of the solar water heater, cold water from a tank automatically replaces the hotter water from the water bottle which is exposed to the sun much like a thermosiphon. It is therefore important that a tank is placed right above your soda bottles (collector).

In order for this to be more effective, the soda bottles are painted black to absorb as much heat as possible since other colors including white reflects certain amount of light whereas black does the opposite.

Please also note that the plastic of these soda bottles slowly breaks down when exposed to the sun's heat releasing harmful chemicals when ingested but would still be ok for washing and bathing. In case you are concerned about the effects of these chemicals, you can use other material like soda cans.

I have also seen a variation of this which uses black plastic hose wound into circle and secured into a wooden board.

If you liked this article please share it. Leave also your comments and suggestions on how to improve this page on the comment area or you can send your questions to my e-mail by clicking ASK HERE at the upper-right of this page. Thank you!

Other Articles

Soda Bottle Light Source

What to prepare for a typhoon?
6 Little known facts about electricity usage
Simple Tips to going green
Cut lips and why it happens
Why we need Hard and Soft Water and how you can save using rain water?
more...

Tie up Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:40:00 +0000

Check out also:

Soda Bottle Light Source

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Here is a video I found on how we can save on energy and reduce our carbon footprint at the same time.

It uses a soda bottle field with water. The chlorine is added to prevent mold and algae growth to the bottle stays clear all the time.
Read more »

What to prepare for a typhoon?

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:05:00 +0000

During a typhoon, one thing is certain and that is one can't go out because with winds as strong as 185Km/hour it is potentially dangerous outdoors as there maybe some flying objects that could hit you. Electricity could be cut as well as water. So what are the things that we need to prepare so our stay indoors to wait out the typhoon to pass?
Read more »

6 Little known facts about electricity usage

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 07:52:00 +0000

Electricity, that thing that makes our light bulb shine bright, makes our TV turn on to produce the sound and moving images to entertain and inform us, makes our computer get busy processing those one and zero and brings the the world to our home through the world wide web. But did you know that you maybe consuming (and paying) extra electricity without even realizing it? The following are examples.
Read more »

Simple Tips to going green

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 07:37:00 +0000

Global warming they say is due to our carbon emissions, that with the continued release of carbon into the atmosphere it is creating more "covering", which is basically letting the sunshine in but trapping the heat much like what happens on greenhouses.

But did you know that everything that we do, like using a light bulb, contributes to the carbon emission? This is called carbon footprint. It is estimated that an average of approximately 25 tons of CO2 per year in some parts of the world particularly from the industrialized countries is the carbon footprint per person. So what can we do to reduce our carbon footprint?
Read more »

Cut lips and why it happens

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:29:00 +0000

The cold days are coming, at last we are getting relief from the extreme heat. But the cold weather also makes our lips flaky and causes us to have a cracked/cut lips.

A cut lips does not only brings pain every time you smile but it causes us embarrassment. Imagine you are talking with someone while your lip is constantly bleeding?

Fortunately, you don't need to suffer the same fate again
Read more »

Why we need Hard and Soft Water and how you can save using rain water?

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 09:38:00 +0000

I like very long introductions, so if you prefer to know only what you can do with hard and soft water simply scroll down to the Benefits of soft water and Benefits of hard water section.

"Rain, rain go away come again another day little children wants to play."

As children, we love to recite this phrase several times hoping that it will hid our pleas and go away. But alas, it still pours down on us and so children learned to play under the rain. And when it is time for us to go inside the house we first take our proper bath, still under the rain, but finds out that the soap in our body is difficult to wash off using rain water.

Ever wondered why it is difficult to wash away soap with rain water? This is because rain water is considered as soft water. Soft water is basically water that contains few to no minerals. The lesser minerals a water contains, the softer it gets. The reason behind it is that these minerals react with the soap and forms scum which are then washed off.

For better understanding, let us think of magnets and let us say the minerals are the positive pole and the soap as the negative pole. We all know that opposite poles attract and when they make contact the soap particles bind with the mineral and no longer stick to our body. So the lesser mineral content a water has, the less effective it is in washing off soap and therefore the more soft water you will need to wash the soap off your body.
Read more »

Make those cockroaches pack and leave your home

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:29:00 +0000

You are watching your favorite comedy movie with your family and then someone screams as though what you are watching suddenly turned into a horror movie only to learn a cockroach just creeps out of nowhere.

I never really understood why these little creature brings such reaction to some people but they do. So how do you get rid of them? You may already have tried several methods including cleaning your house, using bug sprays or even pesticides. You may even have hired an exterminator. But in all honesty, even if you did all those if your house is situated in places where there really are lots of cockroaches, then they will find their way back as soon
Read more »

Uncluttering your home and increase living space

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:11:00 +0000

For most of us, living space is something that we always seem to lack. This is why we all go wow when we see a big house on television.

What you may not realize is that you may have more space than you realized.

What you can do is unclutter what you may have laying around the house. Some of these are toys, baskets, books, card board boxes from your last move, your daughter's favorite stuffed toys and even your furniture. WAIT! Before you throw whatever you have on your hand towards me, let me explain that last bit. You see clutter in my definition is anything that is not in a proper place so anything that is in the way for example is a clutter. Whew! Whatever have I gotten myself into. Anyway moving on.

Here is what you can do to give
Read more »

Instructional Video: Home security tips

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:17:00 +0000

Here is a video I found on Youtube with some great and practical tips on how to reduce your risk of a break-in. Some of the tips I have covered in my post Increase your home security.

I have just created a technorati account to and have received a claim token and needs to post it on my post so I will post it here: FGDAUA499YNS

Increase your home security

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:06:00 +0000

Home burglary has been rising the couple of years and it is therefore very important that we find measures on how to deter any intruder who intends to steal or harm us. Possible points of entry into our house by burglars are unlocked doors (front and back), windows (ground floor or basement) and garage.

Home security is paramount to everyone. Aside from the damage and loss to property, the possibility of getting hurt or losing someone is very high when intruders get inside our home. Home security systems offered by some security companies is one option but even this can not totally prevent break-ins and could even be too expensive for most of us or that none is available in our area. So here are some tips that
Read more »

How to edit your blogger template header?

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 06:42:00 +0000

When you started your Blogger site, you were offered some options to choose from on how your site would look like. These are called templates or since we are using blogger, also known as blogger template. But have you ever wished you could change the header to more customize the look of your blog? Well, here it is.

*Very important: When you edit your blogger template, you must first save your current template in case something goes wrong you can simple upload it back.

What you need to do is go to your Dashboard, click on DESIGN and click on Edit HTML.

Once here, you will see some codes. Look for the following line and change the values in red. Since the code is quite long you can try to search (ctrl+f) for the word maxwidget. This way you can scroll down fast and just look for the the highlighted word.

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'>
<b:widget id='Header1' locked='true' title='YOUR HEADER (Header)' type='Header'/>
</b:section>

Change the following:
showaddelement ='no' to showaddelement='yes'
locked='true' to locked='false'

Click SAVE TEMPLATE and you are ready to upload your custom blogger header by going to page elements.

Located just below the code.

Scroll back up to top of page.

If you haven't created one yet, you can now create a header using any available image editing software available to you then go back to page elements and upload it like the way you add a gadget. There are also a host of different website offering free custom headers. One thing to remember when creating your header is the width. Make sure that it has the same width as your blog or smaller.

In case you are not familiar yet on how to edit a gadget (or how to upload your header image), in page element, click edit to the corresponding widget (in this case your header). A window will pop-up, click on browse and find the image from your computer then click save.

You will be returned to the page element window, save your work and your blogspot template's header is changed. You can also check out Learning Blogger - Gadgets for a step-by-step on adding a gadget (or widget).

You can now view your blog and enjoy the result.

If you liked this article please share it. Leave also your comments and suggestions on how to improve this page on the comment area.

Allergens and your home

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 05:18:00 +0000

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

If you wish to go straight to the tips, kindly scroll down to the bottom of this article at the section "Simple tips you can follow". You won't miss it there.

Sneezing, itchy or runny nose, itchy throat and headache. You could be experiencing some form of allergy. Specifically hay fever or sometimes referred to as allergic rhinitis.

The first time I heard about allergic rhinitis I was shocked. I thought I had a very serious condition. But when my doctor described to me what it is, I was quite relieved. Allergic rhinitis, also known as hay fever, as it turned out is a genetic predisposition that manifests itself when your airways get into contact with allergens like dust, pollen and mold.

When we hear dust and pollen we immediately think of the outdoors
Read more »

Reduce that moisture in your home

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 11:11:00 +0000

It's cold out and you are trying to stay warm inside. You turned on the heater and before you know it your glass windows starts collecting water...from the inside! Soon it starts to trickle down at the bottom of your window at first and if it collects enough amount of water, down to your floor.

Or you are about to go to the office and since it is cold outside so you thought it just logical to close all our windows and doors (leading outside) so when you come home from work, it won't be as cold as outside. But as you enter your doorstep from a hard days work, you found your floor slippery. You sit down on your sofa to relax but it is cold and quite damp. Same with your bed.

Why? This is because of air moisture, also called humidity, inside the house. The more moisture you have, the greater amount of water your windows can collect or the more damp you will feel.

So how do we reduce moisture inside our home?

First we need to understand the sources. All activities we do contributes moisture into the air. Cooking, taking a shower (specially a hot shower), leaving containers of water open, and even by simply breathing. To give a more concrete example, let us say you are making a hard boiled egg or simply boiling some water for coffee. When the water starts to boil, some of the water turns to its gaseous state or sometimes we call it as steam and is released into the air and stays there until it comes into contact with a cold surface condenses and turns back into its liquid form.

This is the same principle as leaving a glass filled with cold water on the table and after several minutes you find the outside of the glass "sweating". Nope, your glass has no tiny holes where the water has sipped out. Rather, moisture from the air that made contact to the glass condenses because it is cold. Remember your science subjects back in grade school?

What you can do then is follow these simple tips and you will find that you have a more relative dry environment from before.

1. Don't breathe, the faster you breathe the more moisture you release into the air. hehehe. Just joking. There is nothing we can do on that one so we are all forgiven on this but what you can do is to try to "aerate" your home. Meaning try circulating air into your house. You can do this by simply turning your air conditioning on and put it to fan mode and it would be better if it gets the air from the outside. Do this for 10 to 15 minutes then you can turn it back off. You can also try to open your windows (if it is not too cold outside) so "new" air gets in and moisture filled air gets out.

2. When cooking, turn on that exhaust fan so those steam gets sucked out.

3. After a bath, leave your bathroom exhaust on for several minutes until such time that moisture due to your showering is gone. No need to wait for your bathroom floor to dry out although it would be best if you wipe out all surfaces including the floor before leaving the bathroom and remember close the door.

4. If you don't have bathroom exhaust, don't fret. Just open the window in your bathroom and if your door has those small opening at the bottom, you can simply cover that up and remember to close the door when you are done. Sure it might take more time for your bathroom to dry out but it is better to have a wet bathroom than a wet living room floor. But this might lead to the formation of molds in your bathroom that is why it might be wise to wipe surfaces and floor in your bathroom when done.

5. Always cover containers with water because water evaporates into the air.

6. Always wipe any water on top of tables and on sink for the same reason as number 5.

7. Don't hang wet clothes (washed and sweaty clothes) inside. Dry them outside.

8. If you have dehumidifier, use it. You will soon see how much water is actually in the air.

9. You may also use silica gel packs on your closets to absorb moisture on your clothes although sometimes I find this unnecessary if your home is not that humid. Just open up your closet to circulate air inside as well.

There you have it, try them and let me hear from you if it made any difference by posting your comment below.

If you liked this article please share it. Leave also your comments and suggestions on the comment area.

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 31 May 2011 05:31:00 +0000

Should you buy a house or build one?

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 29 May 2011 13:50:00 +0000

There comes a time when everyone of us wanted to own a house. Because, for most of us, this would mean no more monthly rent which is one of the biggest considerations in having your own place to stay. When you have your own house, you can do whatever you want with it, drill holes to your walls so that you can hang your state of the art TV (which let's face it, you will never be able to do on a rented place), put more lights on your ceiling or even paint a room with the most outrageous color you can think of.

So the question is, would you rather buy a house or build one? Which is more simple, which is more economical and which is more practical?

There is actually no straight forward answer to the question. But let me just point out some of the things to consider in building or buying a house.

BUILDING A HOUSE

First we go through with building your dream house. What you need to build your house.

THE HOUSE PLAN
Before you could actually build your house, you need to have a floor plan. What is a floor plan? To put it simply, it is a map of the proposed house showing where each room, toilet and bath, living room and every other places of your house drawn to scale. It is like seeing your house from above without your roof, it is like a top view of each floor or level of the house. Floor plans will also include your electrical (plus electrical load computations) and plumbing layout and structural design

So how to get yourself one? You can contact an architect to design one for you. You can then tell him or her exactly what you want like how many rooms and the size of each room, how much light you want coming in and every other details. Don't be shy no matter how outrageous it may sound because in the end you and your family will be the one to live in it. Just tell everything you need or desire in a home and your architect will translate those into the floor plan.

I must warn you though that these guys do not come cheap. I can not comment on the price since it varies from every location and the caliber of the architect you hired.

You must also tell him or her your budget for the house. This is very important so that, in designing your house, your architect will make adjustments and can give you advice what is best for you and won't be putting materials that maybe beyond your budget.

Ask also your architect not to finalize the plan but instead make one and have another thorough review with him or her before making the final plan. This way, any mistakes made or anything that was misunderstood will be corrected. Also, bear in mind that this may take sometime to finish one. It could take weeks or even a month before your architect comes back to you with the proposed layout.

FLOOR PLAN COMPLETE
Now that your floor plan is completed, what is next? Remember those electrical load computations and structural design mentioned earlier? An architect is not qualified to make one for you. Instead a certified electrical and civil engineers are the only ones who can do them for you. Actually, your architect can make these arrangements for you. So after you have approved the floor plan an electrical and civil engineer will make those magic numbers with some formula only them understands.

THE SOIL TEST
After that are you ready to build your house? Nope, not yet. What is next for you then? You need to have some soil tests of your proposed site. But what is it good for, you may ask. In layman's term, the test will give you an idea whether or not your soil can support the structure you are trying to build which in this case your house. It will also tell the drainage rate for a particular soil. Without this report, your local government will not give you a permit to build your own home. It is a precaution necessary so that your house won't eventually sink or roll over all because your soil can not support the weight of your house.

How to get one? For this you have to do it yourself and contact a geologist. They will dig a hole as deep as necessary to get the data needed where your house can be supported. For residential purposes, they will dig 2 holes. And they charge each hole they dig. They will take the soil samples they have collected and send it to a lab for analysis. This could take several days to several weeks depending on where they send the soil samples and how swamped the lab is.

BUILDING PERMIT
Now that you have your house plan and found your soil safe to build your house, you can start building! But wait, you need to have a permit first before you can start building. So what will you do? You have to submit all these to your local government office and they will start to study them. You need to watch out however for some people out there who would want to make quick money from you even at the city/municipal engineer's office. People at the engineer's office may try to tell you that you need to shell out more cash so that you get your permit faster otherwise they will hold on to it as long as they can. For this, I do not have an answer for you but if you are one of those people who hates corruption, then just say NO.

Tip: Your architect can actually handle this process for you as well.

If you are also building on a subdivision, then you will also have to ask a permit from your home owner/subdivision officials.

BUILD!
When your application for a building permit has been approved you can start erecting your house from the foundation to the roof. but it is easier said than done.

There are two ways you can do this, you can either have a contracting company to build it for you or you can do it yourself by hiring your own labor with the continued services of your architect.

If you choose to hire your own labor, you will have to deal with the excavation of the lot, to buying materials for the construction. Just make sure that your architect visits the project to make sure that everything is as per specification because let's face it you don't know that stuff yourself.

Warning: Before cutting down trees you have to get a permit if it needs one. Ask your local government's office where to get one or if you even need one. This will save you from a lot of trouble, trust me.

In a few months, you will have your dream house complete and you are ready to move in granting that you have enough money to finish it.

If you choose a contracting firm, you need to make sure that it will not run away when you give your money to them. You need to establish that it has a good reputation and can deliver. But most importantly, do not ( I repeat DO NOT) make payments when the job is not done. And make sure that everything is on paper. What I am saying is you need to have a binding contract with the company and always ask for receipts for payments. This way when things turn sour, you can run after them.

BUY A HOUSE

How about if you just go by your own house? Then you can just scan the papers or look at the internet for a ready made house and buy it. All you need to worry is sealing the deal with the current owner and the transfer of the deeds to your name. Or you can contact a real estate company to build your home. Just look at their models and pick the one that you like best. All the above mentioned are still needed but the nice thing with it is that all these are taken cared off for you by the real estate company. And in months your house is built, even faster than when you build it.

So why even go to the hastle of doing it yourself when you can have your home done for you in even less time?

I guess to answer this question we need to list down the pros and cons of each.

Build your house:

You can specify every detail to your liking.
You need to have to spend time ( a time you may not have) into planning and building your house.
You can choose the location where to build.
You can put provisions for further additions in the future.
You can make sure the quality of design and finishing.
If you do not have enough money to finish it, you will not be able to move in until it is done.

Buy your house:

Just contact a real estate company, sign the contract and watch your house get built.
Choices for location is limited to where the company is building.
For a previously owned house, you may like the house but not the location.
There might be some parts of the house you do not like and you might want to try to change it at your own cost (extra cost).
You can move in as soon as it is finished even if you have just payed only a portion of the total house cost which means money spent on rent can now go on paying for your house.

So going back to our question, should you buy a house or should you build one? If you have the means and you really want a specific design to your house then by all means build your own house. By "means" I mean money and time. Money in that you should have enough to pay for it from start to finish and you must put some time from your schedule to go over details to your house.

But if money is quite tight but have enough to pay for the initial payment and will be able to pay succeeding payments then buying one might be a better option. You will not be able to have everything to your specifications but should be close enough otherwise you will not be buying it anyway. This way, you can start living at a house of your own and instead of paying your rent, you can use that to add to paying your house.

Have you made up your mind so far?

If you liked this article please share it. Leave also your comments and suggestions on the comment area.

How to reduce your phone bill

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 22 May 2011 12:25:00 +0000

Ever wonder how to reduce your telephone bill? In this trying times and with every prices of commodities just keeps getting higher and higher, everyone are thinking of ways to cut that budget.

Telephone bill is one of the things that you can look at. No I am not talking about refraining from calling your friends and loved ones or shortening your calls from say ...an hour to 10 minutes to 5 minutes. I am actually talking about making a call from 10 minutes to an hour or more at no cost! I am talking about calls through Voice Over Internet Protocol or VOIP.

Let me tell you a story, before I have discovered VOIP I used to call overseas for about 30-40 minutes every other day to my loved ones back home. But this still seems to be too short. But all things changed when a friend informed me about SKYPE. Skype like any other VOIP service (Yahoo! Messenger, MSN, etc.) are free. All you need to do is signup an account, download the client software, install it on your computer, launch the installed program, login with your account and you can now call whoever you wish to call for free! In the case of Skype, you can even call a phone but for this service you already need to pay.

But wait, there is even more. With VOIP, you don't only get to hear the other person, you will also get to see them!

Looking back, if am to compute for my call expenses since then I would have lost around fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000). If I am to consider my monthly internet charge as the equivalent to my phone bills, it would have cost me around two thousand dollars ($2,000). I still have saved thirteen thousand dollars.

I am a Skype user (no I am not affiliated with it) and ever since I started using their service, more than 6 years ago, I never had to pay a single dollar to call my family back home again.

If you liked this story or has helped in any way, please share it with others as well.

Likewise, lease post your comment. Or if you have further questions or suggestions put them on the comments area and I will try the best I could to reply to them.

How to create a blog

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sat, 21 May 2011 16:52:00 +0000

Before I started blogging, I thought that this is a lot of work. Imagine you sitting on your computer and writing on lines and lines of text and there might not be even anyone who would be reading it? But once I have started, I could not seem to stop and just want to continue....

Well anyway enough with that let us go on to discuss how you can also start your own blog.

Blog came from the abbreviated words Web log which was initially designed as a journal. But now, it can be of anything like a how to site like what my blog contains.

To start your own blog, there are several options. You could try to look for a free blog hosting sites like Blogger, WordPress, Xanga and Blog.com. All these and others are free and offer tools for you to start your own blog......in minutes. Yes, you read correctly. In just a matter of minutes, you can start blogging your wits out until your fingers hurt if you want.

So why did I choose Blogger? No particular reason, it was just the first one I saw. Each one has their strengths which I can not comment because I personally did not look up on each of them.

So I am only going to talk about Blogger and how I started it.

e-mail address
First you should have a valid e-mail address. I said valid because after completing everything, Blogger will send a confirmation mail with link to Blogger which you need to do. So without an e-mail address you will not be able to confirm your Blogger account. If you don't have one now, make one and come back here.

Blogger.com
Next go to http://www.blogger.com/ and click the Get Started button. Next time when you go to your blog just use the Account Sign in on the right side of the home page using your e-mail address and the password you will supply on the next step. But that is getting ahead of the topic already.

User Information

Upon clicking on the Get started button, a form comes up. Fill-up all the fields and click continue. All the fields are required so if even a single field is missing you will not be permitted to proceed to the next step. Write down your password if there is even a chance that you will forget it to avoid any log in problems later due to lost pass. Once done click the continue button.

Name your Blog

I hope by now you already figure out what to call your blog because you are now about to put a URL (blog address) name and Your blog's title. I called my blog title Something4Everything. I would have wanted the same for my URL but it was already taken so I settled for something similar. It is but wise that your URL and title is catchy so it is easy to remember and catches attention. It need not be super nice but think of something unique and is relevant to what you will be blogging. After entering the URL, click on the Check Availability button to determine if this URL is available. Once you got the URL settled, click on continue.

Final Step.......Designing your blog page

Nope you don't need to be very good at writing codes to be able to finish this last task. In fact you don't need to be writing any code at all. If you have worked with powerpoint before you will find out that it is very similar in format. But first you will need to select the appearance of your blog from a list available to you.

You can also upload a photo to be your background.

Also, you can always go back to these options by clicking on Design tab then click the template designer link.

After completing the selection of the template and layout, you will have a page that doesn't look anything like a web page. You can click save so all your selections are stored. Then try clicking the PREVIEW button and a new window appears to show a preview of your page. Looks better now doesn't it, but still quite empty. At this point your blog is already finished and you can start blogging. Close the preview window and on the original window click on Posting Tab.

Now you can begin to type your very first entry into your blog. Remember to supply your title. Notice also that just below your title, there are several formatting tools you can use to enhance the content of your blog entry including undo and redo. To check out what they will do, just move your mouse pointer over to each item and wait for a second for the description to appear. When you are done remember to spell check your work. You can also click preview to see what it will actually look like. If you are contented with your work click publish post.

Try experimenting on it for now and you will get the hang of it in no time.

For other contents on your blog, look for my post regarding gadgets.

Cheers!

Please leave your comments and suggestions on the comments area.

Igorota Music Video

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sat, 21 May 2011 06:29:00 +0000

OK, let's take break for a moment from babbling about how to create a blog and let me share you a music that I came to love. There are lyrics out there but I am not sure if there are posts already with guitar chords. So here it is as best I can make it up. I got the lyrics from here: http://igorotblogger.com/2008/04/lyrics-igorota-song.html

Igorota

Intro: G - D - Em - D - C - D - G --

          G                                             D
On a soft green [play] ground by the river bend
               Em                 D                       G
She was sitting there to meet the morning sun
               C                                    D                       G --
She was playing a [flute] when the songbird’s broke out
                                                      D

As they listened to [her wonderful] melody
                    Em                   D
And he was filled with every note she’s playing
C              D           G--
Slowly I sat by her side

Refrain:
C           G
Igorota, girl of my dreams
D                                                G
You’re the most precious gift that I ever had
C           G
Igorota, queen of my heart
      D
I’ll go on loving you
                        G -
Throughout my life

G                             D
You are my day, my morning sun
Em                 D                G
You’ll forever be my only one
       C                           D                 G --
She puts the [flute] then sweetly she smiles
                                                   D
And she asks me, “Why are you staring at me?”
   Em                          D
I held her close and a songbird sang
   C                      D           G
I whispered to her, “I love you.”

Repeat Refrain

Enjoy!

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