Nowadays, I think one of the most lucrative industry to be involved with is the pre-need industry.  With the things going on right now, one has to find ways to secure ones future.  Although we can’t really tell what the future holds, it wouldn’t hurt to get an insurance policy to secure the future of our loved ones right? I think a lot of people feels the same way so insurance agents wouldn’t have as much difficulties as their predecessors had in convincing people to get a policy.  The difference of now and the one before though, is the competition.  The competition in the insurace industry is as tough as the competition in any industry.  But unlike their predecessors, insurance agents now has tools that they can use to find new insurance leads.  Aside from the tools that insurance companies give to their agents, there are companies now that were established to provide services to insurance agents.  Services like, identifying pre-qualified leads, where the basic information of an insurance lead is collected by the company which means that these are the people who are truly interested in getting a policy, providng search engine marketing, where the highly trained staff of the said company will do the search for the insurance agents to locate online insurance shoppers and bring them to an informative consumer-oriented insurance website, and most importantly, they can give a steady stream of insurance leads.  I’d say getting a steady steam of insurance leads is the most important service to an insurance agent for, correct me if I’m wrong, insurance agents earn through commission.  And the commission would normally be on the closure of a deal with a propect client.

I went out last night with a couple of friends and ended up watching the rehearsals for a fashion show later.   I don’t know what happened what we got stuck watching it.  Well, it was kinda worth the time for I got to see a lot of cute guys in one location.  Hahaha, I am referring to the male Bench models who will be joining the show later.  I also heard that those who will join the fashion show gets to keep the ward robe that they will wear later.  Damn, if that is true that I should have at least went to the audition.  Not that I am into Bench clothes but you know, it’s just like someone paid you to walk in a mall.  You get what I mean?  It’s not like you got something for free, but it’s like the easiest job that I got if I got in right?  hehehe… Funny, now that I come to think of it, I am not extraordinary after all.  Hahaha, just like everyone else, I’d model clothes even if all I get is clothes.  And I am into cute guys just like any other girl.  But I am relieved though, for if I still like cute guys then that means I am a girl.  Hahaha!!!

We have seen almost everything in the movies. Vampires, witches, gigolos and the list goes on. But I haven’t seen any movie on online casino. Is there any? I wonder how would the story go? In Ocean Eleven, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and the rest of the company robbed casinos in Las Vegas, so how would you rob an online gambling facility? I mean it’s not like there is a vault for the money that the operator would get for online casino gambling, right? Hmmm… Well, they can make something like the Hackers which starred Angelina Jolie where an employee from an oil company was stealing money from the said company which Angelina and the rest of the gang discovered when Joey Pardella which was played by Jesse Bradford, the novice of the group hacked into the company server and dowloaded a part of a garbage file. That part of the garbage file turned out to be a file that steals money from the company through salami slicing. Accoring to Wikipedia, salami slicing is a fraudulent practice of stealing money repeatedly in extremely small quantities, usually by taking advantage of rounding to the nearest cent (or other monetary unit) in financial transactions. It would be done by always rounding down, and putting the fractions of a cent into another account. The idea is to make the change small enough that any single transaction will go undetected. Hmmm, this might be a good idea for a movie, but this could be a drag right? I mean we’ve seen it in Hackers and I don’t think movie makes would buy the idea. Like, each company has their own security systems. Even the oil company in the movie has an IT group who even detected that someone hacked into the system and downloaed a file from the garbage bin. Imagine, it’s like the company hired security men to guard the trash of the company. So you could just imagine what kind of security measure these online casinos have. They can even detect if your card is fraudulent or not. So movie makers would definitely say no. Well, yeah, you can make anything possible in the movies, but making a movie like the Hackers again is definitely a movie that I wouldn’t want to see. If they want to make a movie on online casinos then it would definitely something different from the concept that I have. Hahaha, it would definitely be a bore.

I don’t think this is a question that we should ask Mother Nature. I tell you, if you ask this question to her, you would really wish you haven’t asked the question. Or even thought about it. What recently happened in Haiti and to the rest of the world only means one thing. Our planet is having a hard time of keeping up with the things that we’ve been doing to it. Right now, we are not just depleting our natural resources, we are also filling it up with our wastes. Wastes that came from acquiring things that we don’t really need and things that we get tired of in the long run which ends up in the sanitary landfill. Things like cell phones, mp3 players, clothes, shoes, cars and the likes. On cell phones alone, how many times have you changed your cell phone? Or better yet, how many cell phones do you have? Do you realize that multiple phones would mean you are using up more energy to sustain them? And the sad pary is, after a period of time, you throw it away once it’s broken or you grew tired of it or worse, because you don’t want to be left behind and always prefer a new model. I can think of several ways on how to save the Earth few of them are to stop our consumerism and let us let go of the notion that everything is disposable. Let us buy the things that we need not the things that we want. That way, manufacturers won’t have to make more than what is necessary. That way, we can control the use of our natural resources like our fossil fuels which would in turn lessen the production of the green house gases. How can Mother Nature do this to us again and again? Instead of asking this question, take this as a wake up call. The things that are happening now is a desperate call for help. Mother nature is not avenging against us, it’s crying out to us. Crying out to us for us to act. Act to change our ways else, she will be forced to fixed things her way. El Nino, floods, earthquakes? They’re nothing once the Earth shuts down. Remember the ice age? There will be a great possiblity to have that phenomenon if we don’t change. Let us try to restrain ourselves from wanting to have what’s more than what we need regardless if we can afford it or not. Let’s do our share. Donating money to organizations to help the needy during calamities is one thing. Doing our share to help reduce wastes is another.

(Continuation from yesterday’s post)

So after checking out the news on MSN, I logged in to my Facebook account and I don’t how and why I ended up looking at Sandara Park’s profile (not sure though if it’s really hers) but it had a lot of pictures of her and 2ne1.  I looked at her wall and saw this video, a commercial that she recently made with Lee Min Ho (he played Gu Jun Pyo in Boys over Flowers).

Funny but after seeing this video, it made me check out her other videos on YouTube. Some of her videos there were when she was just starting out and some were from her movies with Hero Angeles. Seeing them once more on the screen made me realize I wanna see her and Hero together on screen again. Bad things may have happened between the two I guess but they sure look good together on screen and was pretty convincing that people in Korea even thought that Hero was Sandara’s boyfriend then.  Direct Dyogi was right from the start.  Sandara and Hero is a good pair.  Sad though that they were placed in circumstances that they were not able to handle and the people around them didn’t really do any good for their team up back then. Anyway, here’s a sampler of their first movie. Enjoy!

I went out last night with some friends and got home at around 5AM. I went online for I wasn’t sleepy yet. I opened up my Windows Live messenger and guess who I saw in the lower portion of the main window? It’s no other than Cristiano Ronaldo! My idol, Giorgio Armani, has chosen him to be the model for his jeans and underwear collection. And it was a good choice. Ronaldo is a great soccer player, according to some of the soccer fans I know, and looking at the ad, he has a great body too! It’s sad though, for the guy seemed to be too full of himself.

Today, is the day when I had my worst traffic experience in my four years stay in Cebu. By God this issue is getting worse each year. Actually the bad experience started last night. I guess it was attributed to the concert of Regine Velasquez, the Asian Songbird, in the Waterfront Hotel, which is like a building across Asiatown, and was made worst by the rain.  According to my friends the traffic started at around 7PM last night, January 15, 2010 and lasted until 12:30AM of January 16, 2010. I left the office at 12PM today and went to SM to pay my bill and started my trip home at 4PM. Imagine 4PM and I arrived home at 6:20PM. Shoot, the trip home would usually take 30 minutes but today, it took me more than 2 hours. Imagine if I didn’t walk from the corner of Guadalupe and Banawa to our house, it would have been longer. In my four year stay in Banawa, this is lik the first time that the traffic really affected Banawa. The Cebu City government should really come up with ways to resolve this. Man, businesses will be affected by this. Especially the BPOs that brought a lot of business to Cebu. Imagine, even Penni was late for 30 minutes last night when he has never been late since forever. Hay… Anyhow I have learned 2 lessons from this year’s Sinulog. First,file for a leave on the Friday before the Sinulog day and God forgive me but I suggest that don’t ever leave the house during the festivities if you don’t want to be caught in the traffic.

Did you know that there is an ordinance about repecting the senior citizens in Cebu City? I was riding a jeepney earlier when I saw a yellow sticker with this ordinance which reminded me of the guy I rode a jeepney with last Friday. See the patron saint of Cebu is the Holy Child Jesus known to the Catholics in the Philippines as Sto. Nino (pronounced as nin-yo) and people would usually come to worship him in the Sto. Nino Church in Colon. So every Friday, a lot of people would ride the jeep to Colon. Especially now that the Novena for the Sto. Nino has started, a lot of senior citizens who are devotees of the child Jesus would really make an effort to go to the church. So the jeepney is almost full when he boarded. When he came on board he arrogantly said “move” to the people who were already in the jeepney. Now one of the passengers who was an old man replied “why are you the commander here?” and the man who just rode the jeep said something in reply. I was so freaking furious with the guy, I guess everyone in the jeepney felt the same way. Like haller! Respect for elder people duh, like didn’t anyone taught you that? I just raised my brows and almost said who do you think you are? Who are you to command people? If you are a paying passenger, so are we. Duh! Anyhow, nobody moved to give way. I guess it was to show their disgust to the guy. He was completely ignored. Haller! If you would do that to strangers all you will get is hostility. They will never give you what you want. But if he could have asked more politely like saying could you please move for my legs are painful so I can’t go any further instead of shouting “move”, he could have gotten a better response. Anyway, if he saw the sticker would it affect him in anyway? Does he know that there is an ordinance like this? If he knew about it, would he act differently?

I’ve been feeling lonely since I got back to Cebu. Damn, never thought I’d feel this way when I get back. I hate times like these for it makes me think about how I get along with other people and makes me ask if I am born a loner or was it by choice? Either way, it’s a sad thought. Because it all boils down to how pathetic my life is. Born a loner would mean people can’t stand me, a loner by choice would mean I can’t stand other people. The end result, I don’t have anyone that I could hang out with anytime that I want to. The people around me has their own lives and I definitely wouldn’t want to get in the way. For some, well, it’s true, I can’t stand them at times for all we could talk about is work or worse, they would usually talk about themselves. I couldn’t blame them though, for most of them are from work and we don’t have much in common aside from work and the rest well, some people couldn’t help themselves. I am guilty of the crime every now and then too. Sometimes, I just want to have someone who won’t talk about work and not talk just about themselves. Well, yeah I know that it’s tough to come up with things to say but you know sometimes some people would just want to have someone to sit with. I guess I crave for some mind stimulating conversation every now and then or hang out with someone but just sit there without saying anything. Sometimes people get comfort on knowing that someone is there with you but are technically not there for they don’t say a word. I don’t know if you get what I mean for I don’t think I was able or will be able to put it in words. But don’t you just wish to sit outside and watch people go by and not say anything but you feel secured for someone’s there sitting beside you? I guess this is the reason why I like putting extra hours at work. For it makes my mind work and takes my mind off these things.