Working Out

My friends and I have been playing badminton every Saturdays and it feels great. To have a regular exercise and an activity to look forward to other than work really helps relieve stress. I have been thinking to play twice a week but I still have to figure out where will I fit badminton to my busy schedule during weekdays. Plus, getting friends to join you is another thing. You have to organize at least 5-6 players to play for 2 hours. One hour is not enough because you are barely warmed up and just starting to get the hang of it and suddenly your 1 hour has lapsed.

One of my co-workers decided to join us 2 weeks ago and I was impressed by the way he moved. It was his first time to play in a real badminton court and his smash and power is really good. I would say, given about 2-3 months of regular play and training, he will be a good player. His secret.... he regularly goes to the gym to workout for years and has maintained a good and healthy lifestyle.

He has been convincing me for weeks to join him during his workouts but i really can not include it to my schedule. My work extends up to 6-7pm and i hurry home sometimes to cook dinner or just spend time with my wife and my son. I still have work on Saturdays and my only off-Sunday is for church and lunch at my sister's house with her family, my mom and my dad. If only if i have one more day between Sunday and Monday, I am sure it will also be filled up with all sorts of activities.

Just yesterday, i had to meet a client at Fort Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. I was with my co-worker since i have been training him for a month now. We were on our way back to our office in Quezon City but got stuck for 2 hours in EDSA because of the EDSA People Power Anniversary celebration. I had to return some stuff to the office because Thursday is my car's coding day. It was past 7pm, traffic is still at a standstill and i have to go home. I then decided to just wake up early, go to the office before 7am to avoid the coding scheme and return things to our office. Now, i wondered what to do from 7am-830am? My co-worker suggested to go to the gym and i guess it was a good idea. It was really fun. It was my first time again since college days and i miss lifting weights. A lot has changed since then, i learned to use a few machines and now i am eager to go to my next session. I am not really into building a great physique but i remembered i do enjoy working out. And it is a inexpensive sport since gym fees are really affordable, except if you enroll to high class gyms that charge thousands per month. Going to the gym is fun and i plan to do it regularly. It is really nice to include sports to your regular routine and i cannot wait to start swimming and biking again. Will i still have time? I really hope so.

Goal Setting

Recently, as the head of the sales team at work, I had the chance to talk to my subordinates about visualizing our goals. These goals are set at the end of the year or possible for two years which will help us be reminded everyday that in order to achieve our goals, we have to work hard. I mentioned that besides having goals like paying off our debts, improving our savings, having a good health, we have to make goals which are tangible and can be purchased and seen. These goals should be attainable and realistic given that we will get our commissions every month when we hit our monthly sales target. Here are the goals made by my team:

1. An original and affordable Tag Heuer watch
2. A good laptop, possibly a Mac
3. A Nikon Digital SLR
4. A new car paint
5. Magic Sing Videoke Set
6. A trip to HongKong Disneyland
7. Pay off a land title
8. A good quality mountain bike
9. A nice ref
10. 15 or 16 inch magwheels

These goals may be too simple for some people but to us it will be a big achievement. Hopefully with the right attitude and teamwork, we may be able to pull it off and be one step closer to our end of the year goals. Good luck and God bless to us all.

Getting a New Mobile Phone

It has been almost 5 years since I last bought a new mobile phone. My phone has already retired, even after several attempts to revive it, like replacing the original battery and the original casing. In case you are wondering, it was a Motorola L6 model and it has been with me even before I met my wife. This Motorola model has been my only phone for years and i just got a new one last year for office use. I am planning to buy a new one, just a simple and affordable phone which I can use for personal use. I have been planning to buy a Samsung phone but just like Nokia models, most of them are a bit expensive.

Recently, I noticed LG and MyPhone phone units are more affordable and has a wide range of models to choose from. I would love to have touch screen phones but most of them are way above my budget. I am also considering phones that have a qwerty keypad which saves time while texting compared to traditional phones. I really hope that when I decide to buy a new phone, it would also last for 4-5 years or longer.

Here are my choices:
1. My Phone Q21 - features: dual sim, GSM GPRS, 2.2" 220 x 176 pixels, SMS, MMS, Chat, Email, MP3, MIDI, True Tones, Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel, 1000 entries, Micro SD up to 2GB, 220 min talk time
2. LG GW300 - features: 240 x 320 resolution, FM radio, bluetooth, micro SD up to 4GB, 262K colors, MP3 player, internal memory 15MB, 2.0 megapixel

Sun Broadband Speed

Last Christmas, I made a post about our activities during the holidays. One of our gifts that my wife and I shared was to buy a new desktop computer. We figured that we really need a computer since most of the time we do our blogging activities after work or during weekends. After buying a desktop computer, I decided to purchase a broadband modem from Sun Cellular so we can go online at home immediately without waiting for approval from cable companies who offer DSL internet connection. I decided to get Sun instead of Smartbro and Globe Tattoo since at that time it was the cheapest and a few friends told me the connection is good.

Just like any other advertisements we see on the tv and print, Sun Cellular is no different. They claim that you can get a speed of as high as 3.6 mbps but the truth, after using their services for almost a month now, i cannot even get a connection close to 1.0 mbps. The average speed i get is 120 kbps. That is not even 25% of the speed they claim you can get when you decide to use their services. Most of the time, i get 0.15 kbps and sometimes i just get disconnected after being online for a few hours. Is Sun offering broadband internet or dial-up? Frankly, i could not tell the difference because of their broadband snail speed. Now, to be fair to them, i understand that broadband signal depends on the location. Presently I am located here in Quezon City just 10 minutes away from Cubao or Eastwood, Libis. Is my location difficult to reach? Is this one of Sun Cellular's dead spot?

Hopefully their services will get better in a few months. But my wife and I cannot wait for their improvements. We were just talking yesterday about our friends experiences with other companies. If our budget permits, we might consider trying Smartbro or Bayantel. I did not include PLDT to our choices since our connection at the office is PLDT and we had several bad experiences with them. I know Smart and PLDT are managed by the same people but I hope Smartbro is better than what we have right now. Our connection right now is really bad. Hopefully people considering to avail of their services will think twice. But then again, you can always give the lame excuse of location problems.

Car Aircondition Repair

I recently had my car air conditioning unit repaired. The car I am driving is a Honda Civic 1995 Esi model and according to my trusted repairman, the aircon unit is still original. The aircon started to struggle a few days back and just last weekend, it finally came to a stop, i could not turn the unit on anymore. I considered getting a surplus unit from Japan, since brand new compressors costs more than 12k (surplus costs at least half). I decided to leave my car for one whole day at the repair shop and to my surprise, the repairman told me the compressor unit is still good and he decided to replace just a few parts. Although it is cheaper compared to getting a surplus unit, it is still a big dent to my savings.

Knowing the aircon unit is still original, this shows that Honda Civic parts are really very durable. The car is already 15 years old and most of the parts are still functioning well. The aircon unit is used everyday, for about 3-4 hours a day when I go to field work and i never had aircon trouble since i got the car almost 2 years ago. I also have not replaced several parts but i do know that a number of them needs to be replaced to avoid higher repair costs. Getting a Honda is really a good investment since majority of its parts really lasts for years. A bit expensive but it is really worth it.

Here are the parts I replaced for the past 2 years:
1. radiator fan
2. radiator cap
3. radiator fan sensor switch
4. tail light bulbs
5. passenger side headlight bulb
6. 4 tires
7. rear bushings
8. battery
9. fuse
10. air filter
11. fuel filter
12. door handles
13. wipers
14. spark plugs

Promotion at Work

Last Thursday my boss asked to speak with me outside the office. It was the second time we stepped out of the office this month to discuss details about our company's plans for this year. He then handed out a two-page document after saying that he has decided to promote me as a sales supervisor of his company. I was really excited about the promotion as i was reading my new job description and responsibilities. He added that our two office-based sales staff will be directly under me plus another new hired field sales staff. It was really a big step forward since i started more than two years ago as the only sales staff for HRI Marketing.

Last Saturday, our company had our first planning and training seminar and my promotion was officially announced to all our staff. It was overwhelming since everybody clapped their hands and said congratulations to me. My promotion, the company's restructuring, our planning and training and our office' transfer are changes made by my boss this year which was in line to his plans to expand and move things forward for his company this year. He announced his plans and targets for this year and also made a promise that if we hit the target at the end of 2010, he will provide additional benefits and probably a salary increase to staff who performed well.

Salary-wise, it is an improvement, although not a big leap from my present salary, still i am very thankful since every peso counts most especially when my wife will give birth to our second child this April. I really thank God for all the blessings and opportunity He gave to us this year and we hope that this year will be great for us. I would also like to thank my boss for giving me the trust and confidence to do my job well and to lead my co-employees to achieve our company's targets this year.

Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I just read today the news about the canceled fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. This is a big blow not just for the boxing world but to all boxing fans and all other businesses surrounding the mega fight. People always say that this bout could be the biggest earning so far, an estimated $30-40 million for each fighter but unfortunately it was too good to be true.

What made the fight a no-go?

First, Team Mayweather demanded an Olympic style of testing athletes for PED or performance enhancing drugs which athletes use to have an edge during competition. This Olympic style of testing is random blood and urine test, any day and any hour before and after the scheduled fight. According to Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, it is so random, they can get blood test during nights or even hours before the actual fight.

Second, Team Pacquiao refused to undergo Olympic style random testing because Pacquiao has never tested positive in all his fights and believed regulated testing by Nevada boxing associations were sufficient to prove that he is not using PEDs. Furthermore, Team Pacquiao believe that the Mayweather group is asking too much and are way over their heads to dictate such a condition of blood testing before a boxing fight. Olympic style testing was never done before for a boxing fight.

Now, different opinions are beginning to surface on which fighter did not really want to go on with the fight. For Mayweather fans, of course it would be Pacquiao. A good example is a regular writer of Yahoo sports who actually made a statement asking why wouldn't Pacquiao agree with the Olympic style tests, mentioning Pacquiao hates needles and pointing out that he has tattoos all over his body. It is unfair to actually question Pacquiao since having tattoos is totally different from giving blood for test within the same day of the fight. Does it have physical effects? Majority says no, but who are we to actually judge a boxer before one of the biggest fights of his career? Truly no one needs any distraction before a fight of this magnitude. How about Pacquiao fans? Obviously the common reason for the fight to be canceled is Mayweather really doesn't want to fight the smaller Pacquiao. He has avoided big name fighters such as Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Paul Williams or even Antonio Margarito. He asked for an Olympic style of testing just for Pacquiao but not for Marquez, Dela Hoya or Hatton. How could he doubt that Pacquiao is using PEDs? He actually went through the same thing. He started to collect his championship belts at 130lbs, then 135, 140 and 145. Pacquiao went the same road. Even Oscar Dela Hoya. All of them started on a lighter weight.

Anyway, a lot of boxing fans are really disappointed to what happened to the much anticipated boxing fight of the year or possibly for the decade. Who wants Pacquiao fighting Yuri Foreman or Mayweather fighting Malignaggi? Foreman may have a bigger future but Malignaggi? This guy was actually beaten bad by Ricky Hatton who was destroyed by both Pacquiao and Mayweather. Who will watch these fights? No wonder people are turning to UFC and MMA. These guys really fight, no cowards, no conditions. They fight for themselves and their fans. Nobody cares about the money except their promoters. Mayweather should think again and again before walking away from this fight. He will be known as one of the biggest cowards who stepped on a boxing ring. He will not be remembered by his big fights with Dela Hoya, Hatton and Marquez but as a boxer who ran away from his biggest rival. Now everybody thinks that even he himself believes that it is actually Manny Pacquiao who will give him his first loss and give him a beating he will never forget.