How to Protect yourself while Traveling

A pleasure travel trip is one of the joyous activity, a vacation holiday alone or with the family is a much-awaited event where you can leave your daily routine life. But unfortunately, there are many reports of crime even in travel destination places.

We need to protect ourselves in public places especially with unfamiliar places during our travel. It is best to research your place of destination before booking. The culture and environment to give you atleast an idea what to expect. Here are some reminders to keep safe:

Protect yourself while traveling

1. Do not leave valuable things inside the hotel.
2. Crowded places such as shopping malls, trains, public big events.
3. Keep your valuables with you.
4. Avoid dangerous places such as isolated streets, restrooms, and other dark places.
5. Be alert with those people around you, leave the area if you suspect anything suspicious. 6. Be careful when cashing out from ATM machines, from foreign exchange places, or banks.
7. Do not let children go alone by themselves roaming around unfamiliar places.

Health Benefits of Honey

Even as a child, I used to take honey as an old-time favorite dessert and also serves as a vitamin. Today, I am still taking honey which usually serve as a sugar to my tea. Chamomile tea and honey are great combination. Honey is considered a home remedy food medicine because of its health benefits. 
Here are some of the health benefits of honey:

• A good supplement of potassium which helps fight fever.
• Honey is rich in vitamin C. 
• As a soothing remedy to irritated stomach.
• Honey has a calming effect, good to take when stressed and before bedtime for a good sleep.
• Help boost energy.

A daily intake of honey can bring about a more healthy body.

Piano Music Sheets from my Collection

For a long time, I have not visited my music sheets collection.  There is a long list, but here are some of the songs in the collection:

Classical

Canon in D

Lullaby by Brahms

Fur Elise by Beethoven

Claire de Lune by Debussy

Nocturne by Chopin

Waltz in A minor

Christmas Songs

Carol  of the Bells

Christmas Songs

Deck the Halls

Joy to the World

Do they know its Christmas

Feliz Navidad

Silent Night

Jim brickman Songs

Valentine

Destiny

By Heart

The Gift

Pop and Ballad Songs

A Thousand Miles

Angel

Diary

It Might Be You

You Raise me Up

and a lot more..

Gift Ideas Ideas

Thinking about what gifts to give can be hard sometimes, for whatever occasions birthdays, Christmas,weddings, anniversary, and more. It is fortunate today that there are also gift certificates that can be spent generally by the recipient.

Gift Ideas for Children - . Kids usually want associated with their favorite toys, games, and movie character clothes. 

Gifts Ideas for Teens - Gadgets such as smartphones, Ipad, psp games

Gift Ideas for a Husband – Gifts related to his sports and hobbies or grooming

Gifts for business associates are usually general gifts such as gift baskets, wine, or packaged toiletries.

Having a Grand Piano in your Living Room

Having a grand piano in your living room. Whenever I see home with grand piano, I can only sigh and wish for my own. Although a grand piano is a music instrument, it is also a piece of furniture at home where the family and visitors can enjoy.

Having a digital keyboard or any music instrument gives more delight especially if there are occasions. More of a grand piano, we all know that the beauty of the piano sound is very soothing to the soul.

Good brands are Ymaha, Steinway, Baldwin, and Kawai. When buying a grand piano, take time in canvassing that suits your needs since you will be cashing out a large amount of money for one unit. When you  finally have one, maintenance is important so that you will get your money's worth.  And most of all, play and enjoy it!

Emergency Kit for the Family

The present generation is facing a challenging situations with many calamities around the world. One is not spare from various calamities, both major countries in Europe and American territories and in third world countries are hit by earthquakes, flood, wildfire, and man- made war.

Every family should be aware that anything can happen. We should always be ready and atleast prepare things for the unexpected. If you are a parent, initiate to have an emergency kit and let the children be informed of what to do. Here are things you can include in the kit put in a light packpack:

Flashlight
Handy Alarm 
Canned good for two days (check expiration date)
Biscuits
Handy radio for media updates
One or two set of clothings
Basic Medicines, include special medications you need or anyone in the family
Emergency telephone numbers

Above are just a few important things you can include. How about you, what are the things you want to include on the list

Dealing with Online Clients

Online freelancing takes a lot of skills not only with the skills required for the project but also dealing with clients as well. Here are some tips for online freelancers or virtual assistants:

One pre-requisite for freelance workers is to be able to communicate well in English as a standard medium of communication. 

Communicate often with your client, they need and like to be updated always.

Be objective with your replies and straightforward. Make sure that your answers really answers their question.

Be truthful with your words and make sure you complete the project satisfactorily.

Know where the limitations of your tasks as per your agreed scope of the project. There are clients that are abusive which go beyond the contract and still pays at low rate.

Be careful in dealing online where there are scam clients that pretends to be legitimate.

Manage Your Stress

How do you manage your own stress whatever the cause of your stress?  The need to handle stress is important so that you can always try to be in control of the things that you can including yourself.   Do not be discouraged, there is always hope and ways to combat stress.  Here are some of them:

First and foremost, get adequate sleep.  It affects your over all physical performance if you lack sleep and the more if you are stressed out.

Connect with your family and friends, seek other help.  You are not alone, you can get help from those who care about you.

Let go of the things that you cannot control.  If you are too focus on the things you cannot control, you are just stressing yourself.

Manage time effectively so that you be on the right track always, if things are planned stress can be more manageable.

Moving to a New Place?

Moving in a new place is not an easy especially if you lived in your hometown since birth. There is an emotional attachment with the place and the people you grew up with such as your friends and co-workers. Living in a new place can be a sad or exciting experience depending on how you look at the situation. 
If you have moved to a new place, find ways to know more about it and the people. Things at first can be difficult but eventually after a period of adjustment you will be able to learn to love the place. Here are some ideas to cope with the move:

Enjoy your new house, your new room and have fun decorating it. 

Know your neighborhood and the basic places such as the grocery store, church, shopping malls (if there is any), municipal hall, and more.

Make an effort to adjust to the new environment and make it as your new home.

Improve your Computer and Productivity Skills

To be marketable at all times, improving your computer skills and other productivity skills are important.  The career industry is highly competitive especially with Covid19 pandemic, more people are unemployed.

Image by Stanley Dai on Unsplash

One of the important skills nowadays is computer skills, either you are hired by a company or you take freelancing jobs online.  Having a 45wpm and above speed rate are required to get data entry jobs.  

The more software programs you know the better.  You will be able to get more job offers.  Be ready to create your own portfolio especially if your skills are into graphics, audio, and video production. With the emergence of mobile and desktop applications to improve productivity, Entrepreneurs are looking for individuals who are knowledgeable on these applications to help manage their business.

Evaluate yourself and improve whatever your talents and skills for better productivity and employment.

Updated May 9, 2021

Internet Threats for Children

The Internet has given us a lot of benefits be it for personal or business use.  Our children are expose to Internet too through the gadgets or digital devices in the market.  Access to the Internet are so easy having tablets, mobile phones, pc workstations, and other devices that uses the Internet.  Because of the availability of too much information and graphical images from the Internet, our children are also prone to Internet threats. 

Children or young people are into social media like Facebook, Twitter, and other similar websites that can affect their perspective in life.  Others would have a positive effect while interacting to more people, but some incidents would relate it to violence and deception.  There are also issues of peer pressure among them.  For parents, the world is changing so as the way of disciplining and raising the children.

Writing Ideas for Freelance Writers

There are many articles written about “writer’s block”. If you are trying to start a writing career, you need various topics to begin with. Here are some ideas to write about:

1. Start with standard topics that you are comfortable to write with depending on your knowledge and skills.

2. Creative Writing. If you are not ready for articles that requires 300 words or more, you can also start with creative writing such as poems. This is easier to write than full length articles.
3. Seasonal topics are excellent topics such as Christmas, All Saints Day, Mother’s Day, and more.

4. Write more about topics that relates to you. If you are a parent, write about the challenges of being a mother of father, raising kids, cooking, and more.

5. Write about topics that interest you such as things that you love to do. Hobbies such as photography, cooking, gardening.

Writing is fun and it is a double bonus if you are earning from it.

Office Bullying?

In a corporate environment, competition among employees are common. There are different types of people working in one place of environment where attitude clashes and there is a need to deal with even with the hard or nasty people. What if these people are superior in position, or in another department where you need to deal with those people even if you do not want.

Most of the victims of office bullying are young new hires who do not know yet how to defend themselves from intimidating a much older and senior co-workers. Other victims are women who are being bullied by men, nasty bosses who maltreated subordinates.

Do not be a victim of office bullying, be always assertive and deal with them objectively. If they go the boundaries, let the Human Resources Department that you are being bullied, just be ready that you can prove it because they can easily turn the table for you.

Ideas for Creating Homemade Cards

Because of the rapid changes of the Internet, e-greetings card had been a way of sending cards to family and friends. Traditional printed cards can also be seen in bookstores but a large number of buyers decreased. For those who are in a limited budget and who want to personalized their cards, creating homemade cards is an alternative way of expressing heartful messages. On earlier days and If my time permits, I still sometimes do homemade cards for family and friends. Here are some ideas in creating homemade cards that I previously tried:

Handpainted and illustrated cards. If you are into art and drawing, you can create simple designs using your talent. Using water color and craypass 

Using cut-out images and letters. Like scrapbooking, you can easily cut out images and letters from magazines. Use images that best describe your images or your recipient of your card. 

Use dried leaves. Dried flowers inside a book is a common material for homemade cards. 

Creating multiple envelopes. You can create atleast 5 envelopes in various sizes and put them together according to sizes. Create some designs on the largest envelope while the smallest envelope contains your handwritten message. 

Tips in Buying Clothes for Women

Buying or shopping clothes is one of the things that women likes to do be it on the shopping malls or the many shopping marketplaces from the Internet.  But in buying clothes, we should see to it that we are buying what is our money’s worth.  Some clothes are of low quality even if they are expensive.  We should know how to look for a quality and yet affordable one.  There are items that are really expensive but worth buying because of its high quality of workmanship and materials.  Some women  are impulsive buyers especially if this is done through online shopping where shopping is just a click away.  

Here are some tips in buying clothes at the stores or through online shopping:

• When buying clothes, it should fit our body and comfortable to wear.  
• Design or style is considered but if you are not comfortable with it better not buy it.  Check the materials and how workmanship is done.  
• When choosing color, it should match other clothes so you can mix and match saving you from buying more clothes.
• Be smart in buying online, scam marketplaces or sellers are rampant in the Internet.  Just buy from reputable online shops and read reviews before buying.
• More and more independent sellers are now being recognized with same quality with the branded ones.
• Look for shopping deals to get more of your budget and save money.
• Think twice of many times before buying an expensive product so that you will not regret later buying impulsively.

Share some thoughts and comment if you want to add more tips on the list.  Enjoy shopping!  

Reduce your House Bills

The cost of house utilities such as water, light, communications, cable, and other house expenses are increasing. Your income should atleast cover the cost of living and have some savings for emergency situations or save some money for the future. Being frugal in spending and reducing your house bills are ways to save money. Here are some things your family can do to save:

1. Conserve energy by turning off the lights in the room if no one is using. 
2. Buy energy saving lights.
3. Make sure that you consume all the prepared food, no wasted food. Just think of the people that do not have food on their table.
4. Teach kids of the value of money and how money are earned. Even children can be taught on how to handle money on an earlier age.
5. It is not enough to teach your children, the best way to teach is to be a good example to them.
6. Control your expenses and budget your money.

Shopping Tips to Save Money

Are you an impulse buyer?  Are you the type of person that spends much whenever you are out?  If you want to save money, you better think of ways to do it.  Evaluate your income capacity so that you will be able to budget your spending habits.  Prepare a list before shopping so that you will be able to prioritize the things that you need.  In doing so, you will also save time in shopping and do other activities. 

Schedule your shopping so that you will be more prepared doing it.  When buying, compare prices from different stores you just need to be patient looking around.  If you are into online shopping, the temptation to buy more may come easily but if you are determined to buy what you need you can do it.  Discount coupons also helps in saving money.

Afternoon Delight with a Friend

A cup of brewed coffee and a freshly baked bread are enough to enjoy an afternoon delight with a friend. After the tight and stressing weekdays, feels good to unwind a bit and enjoy a personal chat with a friend.

Social media gave us opportunity to keep in touch always with our loved ones through various chat messaging, a personal social contact with them is still best if time permits. With electronic cards, emails, and other forms of electronic communications are just tip of our fingers, but it comes impersonal at times.

Simple joys in life are still the best shared with a friend.

Using Viber in your Business

The Internet had become a big help in businesses. If you have shifted from traditional to online marketing, you will have a global market at your hand. Viber became popular not only for personal users but for businesses as well. Using Viber will help business cut cost on their operational communication cost. Since customers will be globally, aside from email, chat, traditional calls is still necessary when doing transaction. Photos and videos can also be sent. 

As the technology develops, communication is getting cheaper which helps businesses on their operations.

The Importance of Mobile Contacts Back-up

Mobile contacts are very important so that we will always to keep safe of important details and able to communicate with friends, family, and business contacts.  Inspite of having Facebook and other social media, communicating through phone is still the number one way to get in touch.

There are also  many ways nowadays that you can easily synchronize your contacts, photos, messages,bookmarks, videos with your other devices such as computer, tablets, or notebook.  Do what you have to do before it is too late that you factory reset your mobile phone without having a backup of your mobile contacts. Mobile contacts backup is a must for everyone.

Moving to a New Place?

Moving in a new place is not an easy especially if you lived in your hometown since birth. There is an emotional attachment with the place and the people you grew up with such as your friends and co-workers. Living in a new place can be a sad or exciting experience depending on how you look at the situation. 
If you have moved to a new place, find ways to know more about it and the people. Things at first can be difficult but eventually after a period of adjustment you will be able to learn to love the place. Here are some ideas to cope with the move:

Enjoy your new house, your new room and have fun decorating it. 

Know your neighborhood and the basic places such as the grocery store, church, shopping malls (if there is any), municipal hall, and more.

Make an effort to adjust to the new environment and make it as your new home.

Inspirations in Song Writing Lyrics

Just like poetry, writing lyrics is one of the hobbies I like to do when the mood strikes. There are thousand of songs which are beautifully written, music is one of the most effective medium of expression. 

Where can you find inspiration to write? There can be many topics that you can write about. In every situation you can find inspiration like you are telling a story, in every things you see around you, in every emotion that you feel, experiences of your friend, and many more inspirations in life. But for a lyricist or songwriter, not all the songs came from personal experiences. Just like a writer or an actor, a lyricist can play a different role and create a masterpiece. While many great songs are also written during the ebb of a songwriter’s life where personal emotions and experiences are the source of inspirations.

Can you list down songs beautifully written?

Tips When Buying a Used Car

Buying a used car is an option for buyers with a limited budget. For some, there will be other reasons, but mostly it is because of the high cost of brand new cars they tend to have the option for used cars. There is always a risk, here are some tips to consider before considering a used car:

Decide on your budget, you will be able to choose from hundreds of options but you can narrow it down by knowing the ceiling of your choices. This is much easier to start with than browsing too many used cards but not on the range of your budget. Now you know the price range, decide on what type of car you want. The brand and type of body, color, and more. When you visit a car dealer, they can better assist you and suggest you according to your preference.

Choose the dealer carefully, a referred one is best rather than dealing with a total unknown dealer. If you are not a car expert, bring a professional mechanic when canvassing so you will be guided in checking the condition of the car. Canvas at least from three to four shops for comparative analysis.

What Happened to Redgage?

Earning money online sounds good right? But for those who experience delay of payment it is really frustrating.  After the hard work and waiting it will be wasted if you are expecting the payment.

Redgage is a social media website where you can post links, blog, photos, and videos.  Most of the shared posts are links and photos.  I have seen great photographers and  interesting profiles at Redgage.  I like the community and it is where we can create backlinks to  articles.

But some Redgage members including me  were not able to payout until today. They have upgraded the site and transferred the old profiles to the new one.  But since then the payment has not been good.  It is good if you  are just posting because of  article promotion, but it still depends on the site you are promoting if they accept traffic from Redgage.

What happened to Redgage?