Pick-up lines? I could say that everyone knows about this. Perhaps, you have already composed your own or just borrowed one just to impress the love of your life. Let’s try this one:

Front View. Side View. Top View. Back View. Meron ka pa bang alam na ibang view? Girl replies, “Wala na.. bakit?” Guy shoots back with his well-rehearsed line “Ako meron pang isa,.. labyu!” BOOM!

Ogie Alcasid (portraying the role of Boy Pick Up of GMA 7′s Bubble Gang) and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago are well-known in the Philippines for their pick up lines. Honestly, every time I see Sen. Santiago in her rendition of her pick up lines, I can’t help myself but laugh. She’s definitely a very good pick up line artist – if there’s such term.

Speaking of pick up lines, did you know that the bible has its share of pick-up lines too?

1. The Word says, “Give drink to those who are thirsty and feed the hungry.” So how about dinner? You and me, tonight?
2. You have to attend our bible study. You need to learn how to repent. You just stole my heart.
3. Excuse me, I believe one of your ribs belongs to me?
4. Do you believe in divine appointment? I don’t use to but now, I do.
5. How many times do I have to walk around you to make you fall for me? (The Walls of Jericho, remember?)
6. I only got enough bread and fish for 2 people. But if you’ll pray with me, this might feed more than a thousand. (I like this one!)
7. The Bible said that I might be visited by angels unaware, but something must be wrong with my interpretation. I am perfectly aware of you.
8. I already gave my tithe today. How about you help me spend the remaining 90?
9. Your name must be grace, because you’re amazing.
10. Paul said that it was better to marry than to burn. Therefore, I am under God’s mandate to marry you.
11. I have stalkers following me named Mercy and Grace. Will you be kind enough to walk me home tonight?
12. Will you be my proverbs 10:31?

We’ve been very busy these past few days and time to update this blog is hard to find.

I just remember today that I have to blog about our wedding suppliers. Apology though as I can’t compose article for each of them so allow me to just enumerate them.

Here they are:

1. Gruppo i4i – Photo & Video
2. Kiss The Girl Events – Coordination
3. Queensland Catering/Ysabel’s Garden – Catering and wedding venue
4. Suarez Wedding Rings – Ring
5. Shiela Guazon – Cake
6. Bandolon Printhaus (Recto, Manila) – Invitation
7. Joceph Piamonte – Keyboardist
8. Partyshots – Photobooth
9. Joey’s Flower Shop – Flower
10. Realm HMU Salon - Hair & make-up
11. Acclaim Butterflies – Butterflies for events
12. Jackarde Apartelle  (Las Pinas) – Accomodation

This may not sound good for those who spend a lot of time looking down at  your cellphone and texting or reading your e-book.

Excessive  texting and use of mobile devices may lead to something chiropractors are calling “Text Neck” which symptoms include headache, neck, back and/or shoulder pain, as well as numbness and tingling of the upper extremities.

According to the Text-Neck Institute, when someone has their head flexed forward while looking down at the screen on their hand held mobile device for long periods of time, the bones and muscles of the spine adapt to that posture and postural change ensues. This will cause changes in the curve, supporting ligaments, tendons, and musculature, as well as the bony segments. Eventually there may be nerve involvement, muscle spasms and pain.

See Text Neck on the news below:

Philippines, being the Text Capital of the World, is facing a serious health matter. Let’s face the fact that most of us can’t live a day without cellphones, gadgets, mp3s or any other devices. So to avoid the condition, we encourage you do the following:

• hold mobile devices up and in front of your face when you’re using it;
• take breaks;
• stretch your hands and forearms; and
• hold your head back to relieve the symptoms

Roughly 7 hours before the start of the most awaited beauty pageant of the year, the Miss Universe 2011 and roughly 7 hours before it becomes a trending topic in Twitter, be it here in the Philippines or Worldwide, I decided to write a post regarding the latest update of the Philippine’s bet Ms. Shamcey Supsup on the online poll conducted by the Latin American TV network, Telemundo.

As of September 13, 1:17 AM (Philippine time), our very own Ms. Shamcey Supsup is still on top garnering a total vote of 2,082,809 votes followed by Ms. Venezuela and Ms. Mexico, respectively.

Screengrabbed from msnlatino.telemundo.com

Online voting was closed at 6PM of September 11 Eastern Time (ET). So it’s 6AM here yesterday, September 12. So it means, Ms. Shamcey Supsup will automatically get a slot in the semi-finals.

On the other hand, Ms. Lea Salonga was chosen to judge the pageant. So we have 2 things to be proud of: having Ms. Shamcey Supsup in the semi-finals and having Ms. Lea Salonga as judge of one of the prestigious beauty pageant in the whole earth.

Ms. Universe 2011 will be televised today in ABS-CBN at 9:30 AM following Kris TV.

God bless you, Ms. Shamcey Supsup. Break a leg and bring home the bacon!

A couple of weeks ago or more, we discussed the first part of this article – How to Increase Your Savings and I shared to you the formula that we need to follow for us to be able to save:

INCOME – SAVINGS = EXPENSES

Savings first before anything else. Set aside a portion of your income first before you spend.

But the question is: how much of my income should I spend?

I have read a number of articles which say that 10% of income should go into savings. So we could say that this is the common rule of thumb.

And I know how would you react on this. You may say that 10 percent is a lot. With the current economic condition, the said rate is impractical and impossible.

But this is something that will surely raise your eyebrow: based on recently published research, the average savings rate really should be 16 to 20 percent of household income… not 10 percent.

If 10 percent was so difficult that most of us didn’t even try, how much more taking a fifth of your income for savings.

Let’s take this advise from John D. Buerger, a Certified Financial Planner, on how to be able to succeed on 20 percent savings:

Step 1: Trim the Fat

Pay attention to expense details. You can do this by recording every peso or dollar that you spend. The more you record your expenses, the more you see what expenses should be avoided next time.

Step 2: Understand Value

Consider what is important to your life. Think of these things. If I would ask you to enumerate the things that you value, I would probably hear relationships, family and special experiences. Spend on things that have long-lasting effect and cannot be forgotten.

Step 3: Pay for Value

Every time you are faced with a spending decision, take a short pause to ask yourself, “Is having this really important to me? How important is it?”

Compare your answers to how important having something different that you would really treasure would be in your life. Understand that every dollar you spend on one thing is a dollar that cannot be spent on something else that you might value more.

Step 4: Shift Your Framework

The last trick is to change the perspective with which you view each purchase decision. Our tendency is to view expenses in comparison to our annual personal income: “I make $40,000 a year. This is a $20 purchase. Twenty bucks is nothing compared to $40,000, so the cost is insignificant.” Or, “The cost is zero and I want it.”

When your brain does the cost-benefit analysis – you end up making the purchase.

But what if you compared that $20 purchase decision to the money you REALLY have control over. For most people that “control income” ends up being $100-150 per week for everything including food, clothing expenses and entertainment – truly discretionary expenses. The rest of the money you spend each week is to pay taxes or fulfill previous obligations like rent or mortgage, utilities, loan payments and gas for your car.

Now that the $20 decision IS significant (compared to $100 you have to spend all week), you might be tempted to think twice about dropping the cash.

What do you think of this? Can you give it a try?

How do you save? Do you have savings in banks or in any investment channels? Or are you having a hard time setting aside a portion of your income and deposit it to your savings bank account?

Maybe we should accept the fact that our economic condition prevents us from doing this “savings” thing. It’s really hard to save nowadays. It really seems impossible.

Let’s discuss about this issue and let me share to you what I’ve got about savings. Is there really a way for you to be able to save? My answer is, YES.

Question: What is your formula on savings? Are you aware that you are using a certain formula or equation when it comes to savings? Are you using this formula: Income minus Expenses equals Savings (I – E = S). Yes?

Did you get what I mean? From the above equation, the amount that you are saving is dependent on the result of how you spend your income. And most of the time, let’s accept this truth, nothing’s left from your income after you spend. So the result is: ZERO SAVINGS!

I suggest now for you to be able increase your savings or somehow start with saving, CHANGE YOUR SAVING EQUATION. For me, this is the very first thing that we need to learn. And the new equation that we need to learn is:

INCOME – SAVINGS = EXPENSES

But if you are a tither, your savings equation should be: INCOME – TITHE – SAVINGS = EXPENSES.

What does this formula entails? Very simple. You just have to change your priority. Put savings as your priority before you spend your hard-earned income. So next time you get your paycheck, set aside the amount you are to save. You can start with 5% of your total income and then add another 5% when you become used of it.

There are few more things that I want to discuss with you but I decided to make this topic a 2-part so watch out for more ideas and tips on how to save.

Just watched this video of wedding proposal which I could say an extraordinary one. The wedding proposal which led to wedding ceremony was made possible by MOBBED, a FOX’s show which helps people share their secrets or life-changing announcement in a surprising way.

This wedding proposal was really fantabulous! I hope I did the same thing when I proposed to my Dear.

What can you say about this wedding proposal and ceremony?

This day was quite tiring yet I enjoy. Today was the scheduled Fun Run event entitled “I run for Integrity towards a New Philippines” 2011 at The Fort, Taguig City. Assembly was as early as 4AM, and the gun shot for 15K started at 5:30AM (first set of runners) and 6AM for 3K (my category).

This running event is in support of the Integrity Initiative led by different public and private sectors, the ”I Run For Integrity” is envisioned to be a historical event and a bold move by the sectors as a CALL FOR THE WHOLE NATION to join the RUN towards a New Philippines – A country that will be known for its Integrity.

Personally, I don’t engage myself to fun run like this. My reason: (Although I love sports) I don’t think I need serious involvement into fun run activities because of my petite body (?). But when I experienced running and completed the 3k dash a while ago, I had fun and did really enjoy. And the idea of not involving myself to this kind of event has changed. I am now looking forward to more fun run events. And now, to beat my 3k running into 15k!

Early this morning I went to our church’s Batangas Outreach for a talk but before getting there I needed to wait for my Kim to pick me up at the “diversion”.  While waiting for him, I noticed this sign that says “Bawal ang Plastic at Styro” (Plastic and Styrofoam are prohibited).

Starting June 2011, just like Muntinlupa City, through its Batangas E-code, Art. XII, section 84, Batangas City becomes plastic-free.  So three days from now, we can no longer see grocers and buyers in public market carrying the items they bought in plastic bags. BYOB! Ala e, Bring Your Own Bag or Bayong!

I commend this drive or campaign of Batangas City government. Two thumbs up for you!

I just want to share this mini movie clip which I stumbled upon WorshipHouse Media.

Moms do so much to help their children, it’s only fitting when we get to return the favor. Celebrate Mother’s Day with this loving conversation between a mother and her son. – from WorshipHouse Media

Let’s not forget to greet our mother this coming Sunday, it’s Mother’s Day!