Rice Forum @ Waterfront Hotel Cebu

I was back in Cebu over the weekend. First reason was to attend a "rice forum" as mama coined it. The president of the grains retailers association in Davao invited her to attend the forum. She thought that they would be forming a new association in Cebu to strengthen bonds so that complaints will have more weight in the eyes of government. I thought it would be fun to meet possible business contacts from Cebu and so I obliged. Straight from the airport, I went to attend the forum last Saturday, Oct. 5, 2008. When I reached the venue, to my surprise, the "rice forum" turned out to be the "Philippine Grains Stakeholders Consultative Forum!" Imagine my surprise as Department of Agriculture secretary Arthur Yap, Cebu's Vice mayor Rama, and National Food Authority (NFA) directors nationwide were present in the forum! To make matters worst, I had no intention of paying the 3,500 pesos registration fee! I was sent only to listen to the forum and not really participate in the discussion and partake in the meals. Luckily, the registration booth was inefficient and I was able to sneak in without paying hehehe (^o^)/

I was able to listen to the concerns of the farmers, millers, traders, retailers, and the consumers. The NFA was there to present their past and future projects as well. Nothing new was really presented in the forum and I could not believe that a ballroom session was scheduled to be part of the program. I guess it really was more of a socialization event rather than a consultation forum.

I really didn't get anything out of the forum but I was happy to see a familiar face in the crowd. A friend I knew back when I was still working in Cebu who is now thinking of running his own seeding farm. He was there only to observe as well but he passed by the registration booth which required him to pay. In exchange, he got a green envelope with a green T-shirt inside both printed with the forum's title. hihihi (^o^)v

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My Own Restaurant

Owning a restaurant of my own is definitely on my bucket list. And the vision that I want for my restaurant was beautifully portrayed in the Japanese drama series "Lunch Queen." Although making a profit is part of any business, I do not want my restaurant to be profit-oriented. My vision would be concentrated on making good food that can bring a smile to any diner, uplift their spirit, and even bring back good old memories. Knowing that people would actually look forward to eating in my restaurant and overhearing diners praising the food will be more than enough reward for me. It will be my way of repaying the culinary world for all the good food I have tasted and the joy it brought in my life. (Like yesterday I got treated to a sumptuous meal of Angus beef T-bone steak with Au Jus sauce and tonight I tasted my first Wagyuu beef yakiniku style.)

Going back to my experience in Japan, I remember longing for that Tonkatsu (breaded pork loin) set meal from a restaurant by the bus station near the office. Whenever I feel down and I feel the need to energize, I knew I can always count on that restaurant to lift my spirits up with their excellent Tonkatsu set meal. I loved my Tonkatsu served with a dash of mustard and lots of Tonkatsu sauce to go with it. I also remember loving Tonkatsu with curry that even until now I crave for it. So occassionaly I would go to Rai-Rai Ken just to order Tonkatsu curry. It's the only place in Cebu and Davao that I could find Japanese curry on the menu. In Manila, I remember ordering the same meal in UCC Cafe at the Mall of Asia. The one in UCC tasted closer to the ones I had in Japan but both restaurants serve excellent Japanese-style curry.

It so happens that the word "katsu" in Japanese also means "to win." With a play of words (which is another Japanese thing that I really love), one can then say "Katsu o tabete, jinsei ni katsu," to mean "Eat katsu and win in life!" How cool is that?! And it is exactly what I want my food to be - food that makes you feel like a winner!

In order to make my dream restaurant, I can either avail of a cash advance loan or take the offer of my uncle who wants to partner with me. However, I feel that now is not yet the right time. Hopefully in 3 to 5 years time. (^o^)/

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Lunch @ Kitchen Macaroni

"Where is Kitchen Macaroni?" you might wonder. It actually sounds weird for a restaurant name. Well, maybe here in the Philippines but in Japan, western-style restaurants have funny names like this one.

Over the weekend, I watched the J-Drama series "Lunch Queen" or "ランチの女王" in Japanese. I truly enjoyed the series. It made me realize how much I miss watching J-Dramas. Unlike Philippine and Korean telenovelas, J-Dramas only last for around 11 to 12 episodes which is just enough for a quarter of a year. As a result, stories develop faster and writers are forced to focus on a single theme. Just like this series which focuses on Natsumi, the main character, whom by extraordinary circumstances gets involved with a family of 5 men running a western style restaurant. And not only were the writers successful in injecting seriousness and drama in the episodes but they did a good job of injecting humor as well. Japanese humor is actually one which I can relate to unlike American humor which is sometimes hard to understand.

Another reason why I like watching J-Dramas is because mostly these dramas show a different side of Japanese society. Through the series you get a glimpse of how Japanese people really are despite experiencing something totally quite the opposite in real society. Somehow bottled thoughts, emotions, and ideals are reflected in these dramas. And in every series I've watched, there is a strong sense of idealism towards society and the world in general that just never fails to attract me.

My sister actually saw the series first and suggested we open a restaurant similar to Kitchen Macaroni. After watching the series, I fell in love with the restaurant myself and it would be a dream come true to be able to open a similar one just like that of Kitchen Macaroni. (More on this in my following post.)

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Borjer Time!

"Borjer! Borjer!", the people around you loudly chants as if waiting for a respond. You, having lived abroad in the past months, is left clueless, not knowing what it means.

This is for all Filipinos out there who's missing the cheeseburger craze!

Fast good giant, McDonald's, came out with an advertisement illustrating that any time can be cheeseburger time with their low-price burgers. Since then, any significant events, like topping your Statistics exam (ahem!), are perfect moments for burger time! People chant "burger burger" to signify the occasion.

The spin-off of pronouncing it "borjer" of course, came from former Comelec chairman and ZTE-scandal main man Benjamin Abalos. During the trial, he wittingly called his own burger "Ben's Borjer" adding that Filipino-flavor to the pronounciation. This spin-off is popular among Bisaya (Visayan) speaking individuals more so because repeating the second syllable twice connotes something of sexual content. (^^;)

Check out the TV commercials below. (^o^)v

(Hands down to McDo for producing a commercial with awesome customer recall. But whether it actually translated to sales, I'm not so sure. The borjer chant has become the new signal for those who wants to be treated for a meal but it doesn't necessarily translates to eating out in McDo.)

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SP Jain: Global MBA scholarships for Filipinos

Last Saturday, I skipped my Statistics class to attend the Global MBA road show of SP Jain Center of Management. They have 5 scholarships up for grabs exclusively for Filipinos!




They are looking for Filipino students so as to diversify their student body. Most of their students right now are Indians but they also have students from Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.

The scholarship offers 100% tuition fee subsidy! That is why I'm very much interested about it. Not to mention that you'll be spending 6 months in Singapore and then 6 months in their Dubai campus. A great travel opportunity as well.

However, since it's a residential program, you'll have to pay for the dormitory. Including the fees for the books and materials, you'll have to shell out around $10,000 USD! It's quite a big amount that I'm not ready to pay for so I'm pushing for a full-pledge scholarship. That is if I make it through the application procedure, of course. If a full-pledge scholarship is not possible, I heard you can pay for it in installments, depending on your agreement with the school.

The school also boasts of a 100% job placement record and an average salary of USD $40,000 for all their students that's why they're confident that money shouldn't be a problem. For those of you looking for a career change, like me, then this opportunity might be the one for you.

Deadline of application for their december intake is on September 30, 2008. Visit their site at www.spjain.org for details on how to apply online. Disregard the application requirements in the site for they have reduced this to anyone with a degree and with at least 2-3 years of work experience.

If you think you're not ready to apply for it this time, I believe they have a March intake as well so visit the site sometime next year.

If I get accepted and I don't have to worry about the money, I think I'll accept the offer! I want to go to Dubai and the MBA education I'm getting here in Ateneo Davao doesn't feel complete so I'm looking for alternatives.

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Getting my own Domain

A few months back, I've started contemplating on getting my own domain name and acquiring the services of a web hosting provider.

For the non-techies out there, a domain name would be something like my own address in the web, like say, www.myfriendsunjun.com. If I have this registered, to access my site you would just then need to type "www.myfriendsunjun.com" in your browser's address bar and you would be connected to my site. A web host, on the otherhand, will give me memory space where I can upload my files (pages in my site) and make it available in the internet. Without a web host, my registered domain name would be useless because the internet would not know where to connect to. Did you get it?

If you search the web, it turns out there are a lot of providers out there already. And the rates of their services vary a lot. For someone like me who's not yet so familiar with all this stuff, things can get really confusing. It's a good thing that sites like web hosting rating exists. They have an extensive list of web hosting providers in the net. Also, each web hosting provider is rated not only on their price rates, hosting space, or traffic capacity but with other cool stuffs as well like whether they offer marketing bonus credits in Ad sites like Google Adwords, Bidvertizer, and Yahoo Marketing. Most of all, the site allows for user feedback from actual subscribers of these providers.

I haven't really taken this blogging thing seriously to the extent of getting my own domain name. For now, I am contented with availing of the free services that blogger.com offers. This way, as long as blogger.com stays alive and free for all, my site can live on forever without me having to spend a single cent. Although I want my own space in the net someday, maybe I'll reserve that for my future businesses.

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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Did you know that 99.6% of businesses registered in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) here in the Philippines are SMEs?

Small and Medium Enterprises are defined to be businesses with a maximum of P100 million in assets and employing 200 employees, regardless of industry or ownership type. (Maximum of P100M! Some of them may not be that small after all, hihihi (^O^)/)

I look forward to the day when I would register my own business at DTI!

In the mean time, I keep myself busy studying in preparation for it. If you haven't been looking at the links on the right side of this site. I've actually added 2 new links for sites that I've created in the last month. One is a site offering Guides to Entrepreneurship and the other is a Free Personal Finance site. Go check them out and let me know what you think (^O^)/

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Coffee Table Book @ 30

If you're a Flickr fan, a regular blog hopper, a youtube viewer, or a daily newspaper reader then you've probably already encountered LAGALAG: the Travelling Journal of Filipinos. The project was started by Wilfredo Pascual and involves a moleskin notebook being passed around the world to 20 different Filipinos in different locations in the world. The promotional video in youtube had the following tag lines:

Twenty Filipinos all over the worldwho have never met will share images and stories.

Ten destinations abroad.
Ten Philippine Destinations.

Los Angeles. Chicago. Houston. New York.
Ontario. London. Doha. Yokohama. Islamabad.
Bangkok. Manila. Nueva Ecija. Cebu.

Twenty ways on how Filipinos see the world.

I only heard of this when my sister introduced me to Daphne Oseña's blog and when it made the front pages in a leading newspaper this week. As it turned out, one book was not enough! A second book was circulated around the Philippines. (I wonder if Davao has a representative.) Now, both books are in the hands of Daphne, their final destination. And she's on her way to a 7-day vacation with the purpose of writing her entry in both moleskin diaries.

If only I had known of this earlier, I would have definitely applied for a spot in this historic project. Considering that I have lived abroad for 4 years and have experienced living in all the 3 major island groups of the Philippines (Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao), I think I would have had a great chance of getting picked. It would have made the perfect gift for my 30th as well.

Talking about the big 3-0, turning 30 has always been celebrated as a milestone. (Add another year and you'll be out in almost half of the calendar months hehehe) A cousin who hasn't been celebrating her birthday for a while threw quite an extravagant party for her 30th. A friend celebrated hers for 3 consecutive days, one for each decade as she relates. Another friend is doing 30 things for the first time before he turns 30. First on his list was speed dating. (^O^)/

All these made me realize what to do with mine. I really didn't have anything planned in particular. Although I jokingly said to a friend that I would celebrate mine the whole month of my birth month, one for each year, totalling to 30 days. hehehe (^O^) But let's face it, this is quite impossible, especially now given the fact that I'm on a low budget these days. And then out of the blue, this entry about moleskin diaries crossed my mind. "Why not make my own?!", I thought, "but with a twist!" It just so happens that I bought a scrapbook after my trip to Thailand. It's all covered and ready! I even used a special cloth I bought in Thailand to cover it. All that's waiting is for my pictures and stories! And when i counted the pages, it totalled exactly to 30! (Made me think even more that this was really meant to be - very Filipino of me I guess. hehehe).

I won't be making something similar to LAGALAG, I'm not worthy of that yet. Instead I'll be aiming at making my first coffee table book! I've always dreamt of making one. This will be the perfect time. I have no definite concepts yet as to how the final product should be but it will definitely contain the pictures i've taken and the stories i've written over the years. I'll definitely have it published like a true coffee book table even if I have to avail of a cash advance loan to do so.

Would you be interested in buying a copy?
Limited stocks available. Place your reservations now.
hehehe (^O^)v

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Faith and Money

Can one be rich and still be faithful?

The answer is yes, definitely.

Sadly though, for most Catholic Filipinos, faith and money are treated as opposites. Most still believe that having a lot of money is going against the will of God. Poor religious leaders earn better respect than well-to-do preachers. And wealthy servants of God are continuously criticized for not sharing enough of their wealth. Maybe it has something to do with the beatitude that says "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of God." Or it could be due to that story about Jesus and the rich man who when asked to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor couldn't quite do so even if it was for entering the kingdom of God. Somehow people have been conditioned that the easiest way to enter the kingdom of God was to be poor. People therefore are choosing to be poor, whether it be consciously or subconsciously.

Bo Sanchez, a catholic preacher in the Philippines, was no different once in his life. He was poor and he was proud of it. And he believed that saving money was having a lack of trust in God among others. However, he believes this no longer.

Now he believes that "for many people, unless there's financial freedom, there can be no real freedom in their life." He knows that money can't buy happiness but it can buy freedom. And now, he strives to earn not so that he can be ugly rich, but more so to be able to help a lot more people.

In line with his new vision, he has written books about being truly rich. He is organizing seminars on personal finance, marketing, and entrepreneurship, helping Filipinos take a step further to financial freedom.

After all, there is nothing wrong with earning and saving your money. I believe it is the eventual attachment to money that destroys our spirit. But we are intelligent beings, if we will it enough, there is no attachment we cannot control or stop from developing.

In Bo's latest blog entry (http://bosanchez.ph/category/blogs/), he encourages everyone to be entrepreneurs. However, you take it, you are the CEO of your personal finances so better learn to manage your finances now!

My objective for next year would be to become an entrepreneur. I've tried trading a few times last year and was able to earn a decent amount out of it but I'm postponing that for now for family reasons. I am looking to establishing my own business. I don't mind if I fail at first as long as I learn from the process. If I don't have enough finances, I can always avail of fast cash payday loans. Not every loan is bad for you. If what you plan to do with the money produces a revenue greater than that of the loan's interest rate then who would have effectively started out something using someone else's money. In this new field that I'm entering, I hope someone who can help and guide me will come along.

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Blogging Extra!

Who would have thought that something as personal as your blog can now be used to generate extra money or income for you? When I started blogging back in 2006, the thought never crossed my mind. Back then, all I wanted was to start up my own website so people can go visit and read things about me.

The more I was into blogging though, I acquired a lot of new blogging friends and the more I got to know about the internet. It turns out that the possibilities are really endless when it comes to the internet. And one of these possibilities that I got introduced to was making money out of your blog. Yes, you can make money out of your blogs. Companies like payperpost offer this kind of services.

Personally, as a reader of other blogs as well, I hate reading sponsored posts. Somehow, the sponsorship makes the blog impersonal. But I’ve also read some where the sponsorships are cleverly hidden, barely noticeable at all. That is the challenge for me now because as much as I’d like to earn extra through this site, I don’t want to lose any readers because of it.

What will I do with all the extra money? Well, maybe I can use it to support my sister so she can retire and go back to our hometown already. Nah! I don’t think it’ll even be enough to support myself. Hehehe. (^O^)v But one thing that it may be good for is buying all those gadgets like PDAs, cellphones, and accessories for my DSLR. That’ll be good enough reward for me!

If ever, I’ll let you guys in on my first purchase … *fingers crossed*

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Wasted Resources

Do you know what a lien is?

www.dictionary.com defines a lien as “the legal claim of one person upon the property of another person to secure the payment of a debt or the satisfaction of an obligation.”

With the sudden increase in steel and cement prices these days, I bet a lot of people in the construction business are filing for liens. I believe before one can file for a claim one has to submit a preliminary lien notice. I have two friends who are into the construction business; I hope they don’t have to go through this. All these legal claims really only put good resources put to waste. (I bet the attorneys I know reading this blog would object to this! (^O^)/)

I would know really because back when I was in high school, my mom was swindled big time in her business. She had to file a claim to freeze the bank accounts and some of the properties of the offending party. And it’s taking years for the case to progress. (I wonder if what my mom did can be called a lien?)

I certainly hope nobody files a lien or any kind of claim against me!

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Botika ng Bayan

“Botika ng Bayan” literally translates to “The Pharmacy of the Country”, it is a program of the government of the Philippines to bring cheap medicines to the public. The stations are not necessarily government owned, private companies may apply for a franchise. Owners will get the privilege of buying medicines at a subsidized cost thus being able to distribute the same medicines to the public at reduced cost. This is one of the business opportunities that have been presented to me recently.

When it comes to medicines though, one has to be careful because the human body may react differently to different compounds. Especially with the resurgence of generic brands and new medicines, one has to be careful in choosing the right one. Knowing whether the medicine came from a reputable pharmaceutical manufacturing company helps. Case studies and rigor testing must be done before new compounds, included in medicines, must be introduced to the public.

Managing a pharmacy looks difficult, especially the fact where in you have to take inventories of very small objects. My mom is a pharmacist but she left the profession when she started going into trading and business. I personally don’t know anything about running a pharmacy but as my mom says, ‘every opportunity is a learning experience’. I may fail at it at first but if I learn enough to make it big the next time, that’s what will really count. Let’s all see where this will lead …

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