Now, we turn to the Global Warming craze, Copenhagen summit, and the details behind it all in general. You have the politicians and select “scientists” who are declaring that we must act now or we are all going to die! Ah!! Government to the rescue!! Oh, let us ignore the minor details. Summarizing them nicely is my daughter:

” The temperatures are going down not up. It is getting colder not warmer.”

Yes, that is true of our area here. It is hard to tell in the Phils where it is always hot and humid because of the oceans and the equator. It also is true when you read the data taken from the accurate measuring devices. But shhh, don’t tell all the big wigs an 8-yr-old figured out they are lying. It is so nice of the so-called scientists to leave a detailed email trail of their fraud.

Lastly is a new initiative announced by the current President of the USA at a retail store called Home Depot. He declared his administration will launch a tax incentive program or something of the like to get people to winterize their homes. To quote this article:

” The president was at Home Depot to urge Congress to approve incentives for Americans to spend money improving their home energy savings.

Doing so, he said,

“is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest things we can do to put American back to work while saving money and reducing harmful emissions.”"

I think he has never tended to the realities of home ownership. Landlords have no reason to improve their properties as the renters pay the bill. The renters have no reason to put money into a place that isn’t their own assuming the landlord would even let them. Responsible home owners already do this stuff as it is called a simple word – maintenance. But people can’t do any of this if their jobs are insecure or threatened or promises of higher bills are coming. The actual unemployment rate in the USA is about 17%. It is rather brutal here and getting worse. Oh, I forgot to mention, they pick and choose how to count who is unemployed and who isn’t. Fun isn’t it?

There is one last parting thing about this concept of helping to “put Americans back to work” that the President of the USA didn’t figure out but my 8-yr-old daughter did.

“You winterize your place BEFORE winter not DURING.”

She also pointed out it is hard to take care of the outside stuff when it is so cold and there is so much snow and ice on the ground. Not so surprisingly, our 8-yr-old, who has never built anything or done much maintenance on anything, happens to be in agreement with the directions on the back of the caulking packages. It is supposed to be applied on a warm day above 50 degrees and at least 5 degrees above the dew point. Zero degrees Fahrenheit does not qualify. Trying to navigate the snow banks and ice does not count as a good weather day.

When the media and the government can’t fool an 8-yr-old girl, don’t let them fool you. Good now means bad and bad now means good. Cooling means warming and anything else follows the rules of the opposite is closer to the truth.

Oh, one last minor detail needs to be included. My 8-yr-old daughter doesn’t need a teleprompter.LOL!

Happy New Year and Brrrr, I am tired of Wisconsin weather!

Live Well,

Anah

Upside Down

For those hearing what is going on in the USA from the US media and government, take it all in with an extreme amount of skepticism. This isn’t a political statement but a neutral observation. As you will see, my 8 yr old daughter can see the blatant holes in what is being pushed. It is that completely lacking of common sense. Perhaps it is her Filipino blood, what Filipino doesn’t see corruption when they’ve grown up seeing it?

I won’t go into too much detail because there is so much of it. Generally, you can assume what is being said by the current US media and government to be the opposite of the truth. I will not say which you can trust as they all have their biases and goals. I will say you should turn to basic common sense that an 8-year-old has and only accept statements backed up with solid information.

What do I mean solid information? I mean data that has been taken from a lot of samples, been tested extensively, and has no political slant. We can’t trust what is being told us and we can’t even trust the data unless those presenting it can show exactly where they got it all from and how they got it so others can duplicate it. i.e. Follow the data (collected correctly) to where it may leads and not try to force data to meet our opinions.

That said, let me give a few examples. I’ll touch on the Swine Flu or the H1N1 virus, the latest global warming stuff, and an example of what is currently being promoted as a means of more jobs in the US economy.

First, the swine flu or the H1N1 virus gets the first tidbit on it. You have probably heard of the “horrible pandemic” that was going to infect many millions and kill multitudes if you didn’t get your vaccine shot now! ( I also got tired of people asking if I am going to get my FLU shot and H1N1 vaccine kasi daw I am buntis!) Read through this highly detailed piece from doctors about it.

Summary: The H1N1 is a mild bug that has a low rate of infection and low rate of killing people. The vast majority of the numbers are pure guesswork as they quit testing and assumed everyone had it as of August 30, 2009. The vaccine is posing to be a far greater risk than the flu bug.

On a personal note, all three of us had the swine flu or the symptoms that are said to go with it. We didn’t bother to go to the doctors to find out. We did what you always do when you have the flu. Wash your hands when you are healthy and stay home when you are sick. The headache was a major pain but the whole thing was rather tame for a couple of days then it passed. Or as my daughter says about this:

“Those people are nuts. They aren’t using their brain. It wasn’t that bad. Na Krong-Krong na!”

Anah

photo from tictocfamily.com

This is just a little post to let everyone know more is coming. I’ll be much more consistent after the finishing touches are done on this place.

Until then, I will part with a few little tidbits that I or my hubby have seen and wondered about.

The first question is just something I have wondered about. I have no real answer for it but it does beg for someone to answer it.

The swine flu vaccine or the H1N1 vaccine that has been developed and heavily promoted here in the USA is created by growing it inside of an egg. A vegan is an individual who holds to the belief and practice of consuming no animal product whether it be meat, milk, eggs, or whatever.

The question: Will a vegan get the swine flu vaccine when it was grown inside of an egg? Can they do so and still call themselves a vegan? Can a vegan justify getting a vaccine shot that contains the tissues of aborted babies or would that be deemed cannibalism?

Why is it that so many people who comment on an article do so without fully reading or comprehending the article? An example comes in this article about Merck trying to get approval for the “vaccine” Gardasil for 9 year old boys to help guard against cervical cancer in women. Doesn’t make sense? Welcome to the USA.

When you read the comments, you wonder what grade they got in Reading class in school. Here are some details to compare up against the commentary. Gardasil may protect against a few strains of the 40 versions of HPV provided it doesn’t cause your death (27 cases) or stroke, blood clots, cardiac arrest, seizures, fainting, lupus, or paralysis some of which happened in 10,000 cases. It hasn’t been properly tested for a series of things such as cancer causing potential, impairment to fertility, or mutating the DNA. The writer is proposing that funding for a simple Pap smear test would be a far better , less invasive, and non-lethal option. The commentators started ranting about abstinence and cheating spouses. Hello?

Yup, it makes total sense to give a vaccine to 9 year old boys for women’s cervical cancer that may kill the boys and the girls that get it and still not cover much for long. Sure. Yeah, right.

The last bit comes from my hubby who was driving behind a delivery vehicle from the company Ralph’s Hardwood Floors. It makes for a very good lesson that when a business opts to go online and have a web presence, it is very important to make a solid choice for a website and domain name. We humbly submit the website for this company as an example of what happens when you don’t fully think it out.

http://www.ralphshardwood.com/

You’ll get the embedded joke soon enough.

Ahh Life is Beautiful!

Live well and make it a great day!

Anah

What do I mean by the “meaning of the phrase in real life”? Quite simply, you expect others to try and rip you off or con you out of your money by inflating the price or selling you something worthless but talking up what it can do. This happens daily in the life of a Filipino so you are on guard against it. You know when someone is telling you a lie and can call them on it. That’s just life in most of the world.

For example, my hubby had a horrible return trip from the Philippines once where it ended up taking him 70 some hours to get back home and a lot of wasted time and money. He was exhausted with all of the delays in Manila and opted to get a taxi and a hotel room. Anyone who lives in the Philippines knows what happened next. Because he isn’t that fluent with Tagalog yet or the methods of conducting business, he paid the “white man tax” or they inflated the prices because they know he’d pay without any concern. He didn’t exercise the “caveat emptor” in Manila for language and physical exhaustion reasons.

When you take those skills to other countries, it only helps you in business transactions and purchases. You watch what the merchant is doing and double check to make certain they are telling the truth. This is a crucial skill nearly all Filipinos have and should never get rid of. There is a big reason why that I have observed.

In the USA, you have your variety of political opinions floating around but I won’t dive into them. However, there is one mindset of the ‘government must protect the consumers from the businesses’. There is always a place for that in the enforcement of contractual obligations and stopping blatant unfair to all actions (such as automatically signing someone up for credit cards if they don’t opt out). But, like most things in the USA, it is overdone to the point where it hurts the population more than it helps.

Here is how: The amount of regulations on businesses drive up costs and directly hurt the pocket book of the consumer. That’s the easy one to identify. The less obvious is the creation of a false sense of security. A portion of the citizens gets used to the idea that the government will intercede and save them from the ‘big bad business’. Quite simply, that segment of the population gets too lazy on their personal affairs and blindly trusts the government to do it for them.

What happens when the government is incapable or uninterested of enforcing the mountains of regulations? What happens when the government uses that ignorance against the people trusting it and in turn rips off its citizens?

So mga Filipinos, never forget “caveat emptor” against not only merchants but the government too.

What is new in our lives? I don’t care for when a red truck rams our bedroom wall. I am really tired of packing and unpacking. Hopefully, this last one was the last time.

What have I been doing all this time? I’ve been really busy getting more information to write about. There are joys of painting, carpet laying, more medical information to share on things like HIPAA, other medical things that make you scratch your head, funny kid stuff, amazement at the lack of common sense in some, and other general stuff.

Also, you know who your friends are during tough times. Those who are cruel or fake being nice really bare their fangs and attack even more. Those who are buang or walay batasan really show it.

Other things I have done is developed a dislike of the Bee Bomb plant. It is a pretty but evil plant. Speaking of plants, we now have enough space indoors to have plants everywhere inside. I may not be able to enjoy the warmth of the Philippines here but having a tropical jungle indoors is close enough for me. More lucky bamboo and papaya plant please haha!

You’ll get some photos of those in the future to track how they grow. You’ll also be seeing other samples of my photography collection. If you are looking for personal photos of my family and I, you won’t find them. Gotta stay away from paparazzi haha feeling noh?

I know some of you are wanting more personal details of my life. So I’ll give you more inside information right now.

I’m still no closer to being 6 feet tall. I still have black hair. I now live in a place that is colder. Anyone who tells me global warming is true is going to get a virtual kick in the rear to wake them up. Letsugas, It’s going to snow tomorrow!! It isn’t even the middle of October yet!

Oh, you probably wanted even more details than that. Well, I will share them with you. Are you ready? Okay, here it is…

Call me at home. If you don’t have my phone number, then there is a reason for that.

If you really, really, really want a phone number to call, then give a call to this number (323-281-9412) and I’ll get back to you.

Ahh life is beautiful! Enjoy your weekend!

Live well and make it a great day,

Anah

The foreclosures and the pain is not stopping any time soon. It will get worse and the prices of homes have to keep on dropping. The first wave of foreclosures were the speculators who invested in housing in hopes of getting their money back. When the spiral down started, they were left holding the bill and defaulted. The second wave are those who were given loans they never should have been given. We can thank the USA federal government for screwing it up. But now is the Coming 3rd Wave of Foreclosures. What are they? The third wave are the victims of the rapidly growing unemployment issue.

Currently, the USA unemployment rate is considered to be 9.4% on the conservative side. As this article delves into, a more realistic number is 16.4% when everything is factored in. I have seen or heard of many hard hit in this area between my two jobs (one virtual, one at the office). They just can’t pay all the bills. To make matters worse, the mixed and chaotic messages coming out of Washington D.C. are paralyzing the business field. Businesses have to plan for the future through yearly budgets and long term projections. They can’t when threats are of increasing taxes, greater burdens of health care coverage costs, and the lethal Cap & Trade. Quite simply, they have to err on the side of caution to maintain a profit margin. That means terminating employees or not expanding. Sure a few companies are expanding but many are forced to shrink or sit in a wait and see pattern.

One thing that has to be pointed out is the likely 4th wave of foreclosures if the Cap & Trade massive tax increase goes through. Some reports say it will cost each household $3,000 to $8,000 more each year because of the increased costs of everything. Also remember, tax credits do not equal cash in pocket. What it will do is push many couples or household living on the financial edge over the edge despite their employment status.

This doesn’t cover America’s Retirement Crisis that is getting worse with all of this government intervention into the private sector. Those investors that are demeaned by the President and media are often those in charge of the pension plans for companies or public servants. Combine that with the looming Baby Boomer retirements and subsequent downsizing of their homes and you have the making for a major housing mess.

What do I recommend? Be like a wise businessperson. Wait until all of the insanity settles before making a move. We are. I’ll leave you with one more point to ponder. It is based on the Law of Supply & Demand and the excessive spending in the USA of the last 20 years.

Many consumers have figured out a basic principle in money management. Don’t spend more than you have. Live within your means. For too long, many in the USA lived life by digging in debt. It is time to pay the bills. The nation will be better when the politicians figure that out as well.

Thanks for reading!

Live Well and make it a great day,

Anah

I am not one bit impressed. I am actually rather in awe of the pathetic display by those over this fossil:

The fossil is an impressive fossil from the standpoint of how complete it is. The real debate going on is how the fossil will be classified by scientists. Those proclaiming it to be “The Missing Link” say it is a lemur-monkey. Others say it is just a kind of lemur. What is disclosed is this lemur is an immature female. In human years, it would be the equivalent of a 6 year old. This lemur is projected to be about 9 months old before it got squished like Scrat in the opening of Ice Age. However, lemurs do not mature until 2.5 to 3 years of age.

Here is the greatest problem these brilliant scientists have overlooked. All they have is a dead animal. There is no proof the animal had offspring much less offspring that were different from it. No one was there to observe it. No observation means the first step of science has not been met. But the observation that this is an immature female carries with it an even bigger whammy. Even if evolution could be true (easily disproven), we know this dead animal didn’t get old enough to have kids. No offspring means the line ended when this little lady got squished. This can’t possibly be any kind of a “missing link.” They’ll need a different mature skeleton to even try to make an argument. Even then, it is impossible to determine if the dead animal had kids much less kids different than itself.

The best question that I can see that comes out of this is based on the lemur itself. It was found in Germany. Most lemurs are found on Madagascar and the surrounding islands. What was it doing in Germany?

I think I can try to guess at that with the same skill level as these so-called scientists. I think she tried to escape from the antics of King Julian.

Who am I to say all of this? I’m just someone who isn’t dumbstruck enough by a science fiction story to be able to understand 2+2 still equals 4.

Recorded history only goes back 5000 years. Before that, we have no recordings of any observations. Step one of the scientific method is observation. No one was there to observe this lemur getting squished. If they were, they didn’t write it down on something we found. Science ended before this pure speculation began.

Still don’t like what I wrote? Then please answer this question: What is the difference between Science and Science Fiction?

So what the heck are all of them?

An Arborist is a person who has been trained to take care of plants and trees. In the Philippines, this is just part of life in the provinces. You learn how to tend to the plants and trees from others who have the knowledge. But as I asked around, there is much more to the certification than just information.

But first, what is Ornamental Plant Health Care? What is an Ornamental Plant? These are the very pretty plants that really make a garden stand out or catch the eye inside a place in the USA. However, the easiest way of describing many of these plants to the average Filipino is simple. What is exotic in the USA is a common plant or flower that goes in the wild or roadside in the Philippines. So don’t take the local plants for granted, here people take classes on how to keep our wildflowers alive.

So what is Aerial Tree Pruning and Aerial Tree Removal Rigging? The first one is simply trimming the branches on a tree. The second one is setting up and taking down the stuff that can get you high enough to trim the branches. Literally, you have to be trained in Wisconsin to pull this off. In the Philippines, we have a much simpler system. Get a ladder or climb the tree with an axe, machete, and / or a saw and trim. If you are not strong enough, agile enough, or have enough endurance, you get help and then trim. You always need ground support.

So what is an Arborist and why is it a certification? Literally, you have to be certified to trim trees and cut them down in Wisconsin. Why? Because the government felt too many people died in accidents related to trimming trees or cutting them down, they felt they needed to protect the people from their poor decision making and general clumsiness. So of course, they have to make cutting a tree more difficult.

What the Philippines has in abundance on this topic is common sense. If you can’t do it, you get help. If you can’t do it, do it anyways, and get hurt, you should have known better.

Live Well and make it a great day!

Anah

And You Thought You Had a Bad Day? — Watch this Incredibly Inspiring Video

No matter who you are, there are moments when you will feel the world is too much — days when you want to pull up the covers and half-sleep in bed until nightfall.

This is normal. It’s an integral part of building anything remarkable, whether a business, a relationship, or a life. Expanding your sphere of comfort and abilities comes with a cost: repeated self-doubt.

The above video may put things in perspective. In your moments of self-doubt, watch it and meditate on all of the things you’ve done that you once considering impossible.

Get back up. Bigger and better things are waiting for you.

Next…

Most Amazing Rendition of Stand By Me You Have Ever Heard

From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music,” comes the first of many “songs around the world” being released independently. This amazing version of “Stand by Me” brought a smile to my face, and I hope it will do the same for you.

Watch it from beginning to end—you won’t regret it. This cover of Stand By Me was recorded by completely unknown artists in a street virtual studio all around the world!

It all started with a base track—vocals and guitar—recorded on the streets of Santa Monica, California, by a street musician named Roger Ridley. The base track was then taken to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Grandpa Elliott—a blind singer from the French Quarter—added vocals and harmonica while listening to Ridley’s base track on headphones. In the same city, Washboard Chaz’s added metal percussions.

From there, it just gets better and better: The producers took the resulting mix all through Europe, Africa, and South America, adding new tracks with multiple instruments and vocals, which were assembled into this final final version — all done with a simple laptop and some microphones. Amazing!

Thank you,

Anah

credits from edmunds.com

I know, I know. It has been a long time since I last updated my blog. Have I given up on my blog? Nope. What has been going on? Keep reading.

1. I’m really sick of moving. But after a long, drawn out distance move that is highly beneficial we are down to unpacking the last box. If you are curious as to what “highly beneficial” means, email (nyo ak0) me directly.

2. I have successfully defeated an evil virus that infected my computer. However, the cure was as bad as the disease and I lost access to all programs that had Microsoft in the title. Given the age of the computer and additional tech issues, it was time to upgrade.

3. I finally have this new computer up and running with everything needed for blogging and daily life.

4. I hope winter has finally ended and spring has begun.

5. I will be disabling comments on my blog as the ignorant trolls and spammers have returned.

6. I have given the new occupants of the White House enough time to show what we can expect. My assessment is Barack and Michelle are making Ferdinand and Imelda, along with Gloria, look like the most superior national leaders in the history of the world.

7. My assessment of the current batch in the US Congress is they are doing an excellent job of making the current Philippine legislature look like the equivalent of Senators of Rome when the empire was at its peak.

8. If you are a troll who doesn’t understand that comparison, you might want to brush up on your world history and current world events from the perspectives of others and not just your little world as defined by you. Degrees are not required to read and learn. But then I might be overestimating the reading comprehension of trolls as evidenced by the posts the are trying to leave.

9. Here is a concept for those trolls to chew on. Try reading the US Constitution and the words of the Founding Fathers, particularly James Madison who is the author of it. Try focusing on Article 1, Sections 8 & 9 and the 10th Amendment. From there you will find that the bailouts and the “stimulus” bills are not within the power of the US Congress to authorize and spend money on.

Translation: If the State of Virginia wants to build a transit system in Norfolk, Virginia, then it is up to the government of Virginia to generate the funds for such projects for Virginia. It isn’t the responsibility of Hawaii, Alaska, or Wisconsin to fund it from a loan against the future earnings of our children for your selfish wants. Also, if you want to try and justify a rationale for you, the citizen, being derelict in your duties of holding your elected officials responsible for their oath of office which is to support and defend the Constitution, it won’t work on me. Selfishness is one of the core causes of many problems in the USA. How do I know this stuff about USA History? My daughter’s 2nd grade curriculum is the answer. This isn’t rocket science.

10. Declaring that I am prejudiced, biased, racist, or need American Values, demonstrates a profound lack of knowledge of the English language and logic. All you are saying is the 4-yr-old playground logic of “I’m right, you’re wrong because I said so. If you don’t agree with me, then you are bad.” i.e. You are trying to be a bully. I kick bullies where it counts. Do I have a “bias” or a “prejudice”? Yes, I do. I expect the elected officials to honor their oath of office and support the Rule of Law and not the whims and feelings of the mood of the day. The Laws, those enforcing them, and those obeying them should be relatively easy to predict and follow. What they shouldn’t resemble is a woman during PMS yelling at her hubby for chocolate one moment and mango encrusted tilapiang isda (fish) the next.

11. Now trolls – Here is your reading comprehension test. Feel free to leave comments.

Salamat po sa pag basa,

Anah