Creative Thoughts

Archive for May, 2008

Photograph by Justin Guariglia

Here is your FYI (For Your Information Article for today, this was originally posted at National Geographic)

Cancer is a disease that begins as a renegade human cell over which the body has lost control. In order for the body and its organs to function properly, cell growth needs to be strictly regulated. Cancer cells, however, continue to divide and multiply at their own speed, forming abnormal lumps, or tumors. An estimated 6.7 million people currently die from cancer every year.

Not all cancers are natural-born killers. Some tumors are referred to as benign because they don’t spread elsewhere in the body. But cells of malignant tumors do invade other tissues and will continue to spread if left untreated, often leading to secondary cancers.

Cancers can start in almost any body cell, due to damage or defects in genes involved in cell division. Mutations build up over time, which is why people tend to develop cancer later in life. What actually triggers these cell changes remains unclear, but diet, lifestyle, viral infections, exposure to radiation or harmful chemicals, and inherited genes are among factors thought to affect a person’s risk of cancer.

Lung cancer is the world’s most killing cancer. It claims about 1.2 million victims a year. Most of those victims are smokers, who inhale cancer-causing substances called carcinogens with every puff. Experts say around 90 percent of lung cancer cases are due to tobacco smoking.

Abby got me tagged on this so called 8 habit tags. They say, habits are what makes a person up. A person is made up of what he does all the time. Well, check and see what some of my habits are.

8 habits

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment on their blog and tell them they’ve been tagged, and to come back and read your blog for the whole story.

my 8 habits
1. I don’t eat, or sleep unless I finish a book I am so passionate about
2. Everytime I come to work, the first thing I check is my email
3. I collect love letters from my husband
4. I read self-help or inspirational books
5. I and my husband made it a habit to read the bible and to conduct devotional every night
6. When a caller yells at me, i yell back at the caller…hahahhaha…shhh, its a secret
7. I’m a perfectionist
8. I wake up with fresh dreams every day

Photo Courtesy of JIMMYLIMO

There are two things to aim at in life; first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind has achieved the second. LOGAN PEARSALL SMITH

In a call center industry, where there is constant communication between the call center agent and the customer asking for support or assistance, phonetics is very much helpful. What is phonetics? Phonetics is the standard used when spelling out letters. Phonetics are very much helpful in establishing a clear and smooth communication between the service provider, which in this case is the agent and the recipient of the service, which is no other than the customer. Sometimes, due to cultural and language differences, there could be a communication gap that might occur. Phonetics really helps a lot. A lot of American callers complain that the accent is very prevalent in most call center representatives, thus making the communication more difficult. In this case, one can make use of phonetics. I used it a lot and it usually works.

How does phonetics work? Let’s say for example your trying to say “ipconfig” which is a command in getting all the internet protocol information of a computer. You can use phonetics by saying I for India, P for papa, C for Charlie, O for Oscar, N for november, F for Foxtrot, I for India and G for Golf.

Phonetics helps a lot in ensuring that there is a clear line of communication between the two parties: agent and customer. This helps in differentiating M from N, and other letters that sounds almost the same. In other words, we can consider phonetics as “spelled words”. Here is a complete list, one that should be followed by every call center agent like me.

A – Alfa
B – Bravo
C – Charlie
D – Delta
E – Echo
F – Foxtrox
G – Golf
H – Hotel
I – India
J – Juliet
K – Kilo
L – Lima
M – Mike
N – November
O – Oscar
P – Papa
Q – Quebec
R – Romeo
S – Sierra
T – Tango
U – Uniform
V – Victor
W – Whiskey
X – X-ray
Y – Yankee
Z – Zulu

I had this caller who’s still having a hard time understanding my accent, even after I gave out the phonetics and spelled the word to him, and he requested me to spell it out using animals. haha:) it was such a funny experience. I was forced to create my own phonetics.

The word I was trying to tell him through phonetics, was SERVICES.

So, instead of following the standard protocol for phonetics, I used these instead. haha:) I still laugh, everytime I can recall it.

S – Spider
E – Elephant
R – RAT (toinks)
V – Vulture (had difficulty with this)
I – Iguana
C – Cat (ofcourse so easy)
E – Elephant
S – snake

Photo uploaded by Mr MST
Hi guys, I will be on day off tomorrow and Monday. My day off has been changed to these days because I transferred from night shift to morning shift. I am happy because I can go to church now. Yepee… Thank you guys for all the comments and visits. I am happy that I am able to share myself through this blog. I know all of us aims for a happy life, and if you haven’t achieve it yet, don’t be sad, just keep on living and keep that smile in your face. There’s an end to every agony and sorrow, if you WILL to do so. Life is a choice, so remember, that whatever emotion or thought you harbor in your mind, is your own accountability. Like you, all I wanted is simply to be happy and to live a meaningful life. I know, life is not forever, and if its gonna end, I want to feel complete, and I don’t want to have regrets. I had lots of failures, disappointments and heartaches in life, but I treasure all of these experiences because it made my life richer and made me stronger as well. You might have noticed that I loved to post inspirational quotations, that’s because these quotes serve as a great motivating factor for me. Whenever I feel down or I feel like giving up to a challenge, I just look at my collection of quotes, and there, most of the time, it leads me to the right line which will brighten up my day and give me that idea, that there’s still hope. I know you too have your own struggles in life, and I’d like to commend you for a job well done, you have conquered them. As you see, I’m really an emotional person, I value important things and memories a lot. Blogging helps me a lot because it helps me record the important events in my life, as well as the things that are dear to me. Well, my daughter is one of the most important priority in my life, but as you can see, I haven’t featured her much. That’s because I don’t have photos of her, since I don’t have a camera. I am still saving money to buy one. Promise, I’ll feature her more, once I have it. I just don’t want to post without pictures. Pictures helps a lot in making a post more attractive or appealing. Well, anyway guys I love you all. Keep Blogging and keep living. Happy weekend.

My grandfather loves to play casino. While he was still in the United States, he was always at the casino. Yeah, sort of a casino gambler huh? Right now, he is in the Philippines, and there is no place near where he lives, where he can play casino. He asked me to find a website where he could play online casino, just for fun. I searched it through the web, but it displayed a lot of results. Luckily, I stumbled through this site pro360.com, which provides a review of the most popular online casino websites. I spent some time reviewing the site and finally I now have a website that I could give to my grandfather. It was indeed a great help to me, because it helped me save some time. As you can see, there are thousands of online casino websites, but Pro360.com helps you choose the best among the rest. They have a list of the best online casinos and if you are looking for a website to play casino, this is exactly what you need. If you want to know the casinos most voted for by people in the US, just visit the site. Hey, I don’t play casino okay? just my grandfather who needs something to spend his time with. So, the next time I visit my grandfather, I now have an answer to his question, what is the best online casino website?

Photo courtesy of Lionoche
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind. – SENECA

Myspace Hello Comments

This tag came from Mommy Liz. I like tags like these. I love to share my life and the things about me to others. But, basically, I just love to answer questions like these.

1. What’s your favorite color?
= Pink, very girly? during the power rangers time, I really choose the girl who is in pink, i don’t remember the details about it, all I can remember is I’m the power ranger in pink, and my sister is the yellow. hehe

2. What’s your favorite quote?
= THE SHORTER WAY TO DO MANY THINGS IS TO DO ONLY ONE THING AT A TIME. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

3. Favorite television show?
= Lobo starring Angel Locsin, Piolo Pascual

4. What part of the chicken is your favorite?
= leg

5. When you get a cold or flu are you touch or a big baby?
= haha, i’m a baby. because my mom was always like that, while i was growing up, she was so caring and thoughtful. so, i guessed I had been used to it somehow. haha

6. Are you more serious or a big dork?
= definitely more serious

7. Use one word to describe how you are feeling right now.
= very happy, because i got a page rank now, and aside from that my goal has been realized. guess what? i’m now an official payperpost, smorty and bloggersreview member. yehey! at last

8. Name your worst habit?
= not remembering names of people. hehe

9. Name a book that you could read over and over again
= Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

10 Are you a collector of anything?
= yes, before I used to collect tagalog pocketbooks, starstudio magazines. now, i collect letters from my husband and friends.

11. What’s one of your favorite blogs to read?
= I love reading Marriage and Beyond written by a mom and wife named Jennie.

12. Name one thing you are passionate about.
= Reading self-help and success books like Think and Grow Rich, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Become a Better You and a lot more. I am committed to improving myself every day even in a single way.

I am tagging abby, sexymom, gagay, imelda and ijal. hope to see you posting these guys, its so cool and fun, i’m sure you will enjoy it.

Hi Guys, its the start of another month now, May. I should have posted this on the 1st day, but I was too busy. Well, anyway guys, I would like to present to you our celebrity of the month. I’m sure you will like her. This time, it’s not a filipino actress, but a foreign one. She’s from Korea, a country who have a rich reserve of great talents and beauty. Join me guys, in getting to know her more. Wondering who our celebrity of the month is? Well, guys, here she is, Lee Da Hae. I’m sure your excited already, don’t worry guys. Our celebrity month feature for this month will be more exciting.

5 Things To Know About Her

1. Her Birth Name is Byun Da-hye
2. She is a South Korean Actress
3. Her birthday is on April 19, 1984
4. She has been famous in My Girl and Green Rose
5. She graduated in Burwood Girls High School before she started as an official actress

Happy Birthday – Glitter Graphics

Glitter Graphics for Orkut, Myspace, Friendster

I have a dear blogger friend who celebrated her birthday yesterday. I’m really sorry friend, if this is late. I wasn’t able to check on your site, and I was surprised to find out its your special day today.

As you can see guys, she has been one of my special friends here in the world wide web. We haven’t seen each other, but she has contributed a lot to my growth, and knowledge in blogging. She inspired and motivated me, and her blog is one of the very first blogs I have seen. Through her blog, I somehow got to know her, and I can say that she is a true person.

I just wish her all the wish, and hopefully she will continue to inspire and motivate people to become better each day, and to live happily. Happy birthday Joy.