You know you're a Filipino if.....

You know you're a Filipino if.....you nail all photographs on your walls in the living room...
you say comfort room instead of rest room...
you say for take out instead of to go...
you point with your lips...
you nod upwards to greet someone...
your nickname is boy...
you ask for colgate instead of toothpaste...
you eat underdeveloped duck eggs...
you pronounce the word ALREADY as OLREYDI...
you say KODAKAN instead of take pictures...
you refer to your refrigerator as 'pridyider'...
you say "pliers"" when you meant "flyers"....
you cover your sofa with plastic...
you have a Last Supper quilt on your dining wall....
you drive a Mercedes-Benz with maroon seat covers...
you hang a rosary on the rear view mirror on your car...
you have a Santo Nino shrine in your living room....
you're standing next to big boxes at the airport...."you say "HOY" to get someone's attention...
your car chirps like a bird when you back up....
you have a collection of bruce lee and charles bronson movies in VHS and Betamax...
you have "BEST of SLOW ROCK" cassette tapes in heat proof casing ....
you call somebody "pssssssssssssssst"....
you drink with your friends and share the same glass, passing it around...
you say kutex instead of nail polish....
you're the plane passenger with the biggest hand-carry luggage....
you don't want to eat the last piece of food on the plate, but offer it to others....
you say everybody is your cousin, niece, etc...
you say things bit backwards like stick bread instead of breadsticks...
you drive a jeep with your family name written on the back...
you have toyo circles on your table cloth...
you wash and reuse stryrofoam cups....
you collect items from hotels and restaurants " for souvenir"....
you smile for no reason...
you find dried up rice morsels on your shirt...
you add unwarranted "H" to your name, i.e. "BHOY", JHUN.....
you put hands together in front of you as if to make a path and say " EXCUSE, EXCUSE"....
you consistently arrive 30 minutes late for all events...
you prefer to make acronyms for phrases such as " OA:  for overacting or "TNT" for well, you know....
you own a karaoke..
you own a piano that no one ever plays...
your car still has the plastic cover...
you have a giant wooden  fork and spoon hanging somewhere in the dining room...
you have a mercedes-benz and you call it a chedeng....
your mom or sister is a nurse...
you have aunts or uncles named "BOY", "BABY" or "GIRLIE"....
you have a family members that has a nickname that repeats itself, " DENG DENG, "LING LING, TIN-TIN, BING-BING,
lastly...you're a FILIPINO when you dip bread in your morning coffee....

DID YOU KNOW?

1. Did you know? Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States.

2.  Did you know? There has been no mail delivery in Canada on Saturday for the last thirty five years.

3.  Did you know?  The word Boondocks comes from the Tagalog (Filipino) word Bundok,which means mountain.

4.   Did you know?  Cat's urine glows under a black-light.

5. Did you know?  When ocean tides are at their highest, they are called spring tides. When they are at their lowest, they are call neep tides.

Beach Placid "Where Serenity Starts" - Bantayan Island

Beach Placid "Where Serenity Starts" Website Sponsor:  The Place To Be, On Alice Beach

Featuring the Largest Property & Nicest Beach on Alice Beach, and newly built cottages, bungalows, Restaurant with more accommodation coming, and also WiFi wireless internet access for their guests with laptops, notebook computers & WiFi enabled cell phones.

"At Beach Placid, we promise to provide each Customer:
- with respect, honesty, and integrity
- with the Peace and Traquility thay they have always longed for
- with a home away from home
- with affordable and quality cottages and services
- and most of all, with the Best Island Experience of their lives!" 

Just opened in early 2009, Beach Placids' property boasts the best & longest stretch of Beach on Alice Beach.

Newly constructed cottages including the oh-so-nice aircon Duplex (pictured above) at P3,000 to P3,500 per day, with ref. microwave, stove and hot shower - right on the beach with a gorgeous view.

*Discounts for Extended Stays* and Free Transfers to & from Santa Fe Pier in an aircon Toyota Town Ace, and featuring Free Videoke with the purchase of soda, shakes or alcoholic beverages.

Low Season Regular & Peak Season Pricing (Low Season is July through Sept; High Season Oct. to June)

 

Reservations require a deposit. Reservation cancellations must be reported 24hrs. before check in time, or a full days rate will be charged. Please call the resort for more information.

 

BEACH PLACID TARIFF RATES as of April 25, 2010

 

 

Beach Front Duplex: Room 1

Good  for  4 persons, aircon with hot and cold shower, personal refrigerator, walk in closet, electric stove, microwave, Satelite TV.
low season rate  P3,000/ hi-season rate P3,500/ Holy Week/Easter P7,000

 

 

Beach Front Duplex: Room 2
Good  for 4 persons, aircon with hot and cold shower,personal refrigerator, walk in closet, Satelite TV.
low season rate P3,000/ hi-season rate P3,500/ Holy Week/Easter P7,000

 

 

Beach Front Triplex: Cottage 9,10,11

Good for 2 persons, aircon - cottage 9 has hot & cold shower.
low season rate P1,500/ hi- season rate P1,800/ Holy Week/Easter P4,000 

 

 

Beach Front - Native:
Good for 2 persons, aircon
low season rate P1,300/ hi- season rate P1,500/ Holy Week/Easter P4,000

 

 

Non Beach Front: Cottage 7 & 8
Good for 4 persons, aircon, refrigerator, satellite TV, hot & cold shower.
low season rate P2,000/ hi-season rate P2,500/ Holy Week/Easter P5,000

 

 

Non Beach Front: Cottage 4 & 5
Good for 2 persons, electric fan
low season rate P600/ hi- season rate P800/  Holy Week/Easter P1,500

 

Extra  persons/mattress     P200 

 

 

Beach Placid is also available for Special Events (Weddings, Reunions, Birthday Celebrations etc.) Please call for details.

 

Contact Beach Placid's land lines: +63-32-438-5340  

Mobiles: 0917-722-2993    Mobile: 0927-973-3861 & 0917-341-9063

 

 Visit : www.wowbantayan.com

 

 

Credit Card Lawsuit - I Don't Want to Go to Court By Mr. Greg Artim of Ezine Article

Many people have a fear of going to court. The judge, the jury, it can be a scary place for someone who doesn't do it every day. Truth be told, however, is that most credit card cases do not require the individual to actually go to court.

The truth of the matter is that many of the credit accounts that go delinquent do not result in immediate lawsuits. What happens in many cases is that the original creditor, whether it is a department store or a financial institution, sells the delinquent account to a collection agency or junk debt buyer. Buying and selling debt is a very large business. The original creditor does this to wash its hands of the bad debt, and the collection agency likes this exchange because it is able to purchase these delinquent accounts at a substantial discount, often for only a few pennies on the dollar. What does this have to do with you going to court on one of these cases?


Credit card cases are typically what I call "document" cases. The credit card company, or collection agency, needs documents to prevail in court. Most often, they need a card member agreement, terms and conditions, monthly account statements, and if the debt was sold, a copy of the Assignment. (Assignment is a contract between original creditor and purchasing debt collection company). When a debt is sold, at least when it is sold for pennies on the dollar, the documents often are not sold as part of the deal. Most of you are thinking, "That can't be true, can it"? It is the truth. Think about the price of the debt. A collection agency pays pennies on the dollar, how much can they actually get? Often, its just a name, address, phone number, account number, balance, and not much else.

What does this have to do with you going to court? Everything. When a collection agency lawsuit is filed on a credit card account, these documents are often missing from the lawsuit. Your proper response is to hire a consumer attorney to defend your interests. The attorney will file documentation (called Objections in PA where the lawer practice law) that questions the legal sufficiency of the lawsuit. A judge should agree that the lawsuit is insufficient and force the collection agency to come up with the proper documentation. If they are unable to provide this documentation, and this is often the case, then the court ultimately will dismiss the lawsuit. You, personally, never end up in court. It's simply just a matter of your attorney handling the case and forcing the collection agency to provide its evidence or suffer a dismissal.

SOURCE: Credit Card Lawsuit

To be fair, the article writer Mr. Greg Artim only practice law in Pennsylvania and can only comment on how these cases play out in PA. In his discussions with other consumer attorney in other states, there are often different procedures that need to be followed to obtain a dismissal on these cases. Fortunately, however, most of these procedures require only the attendance of your attorney in a court of law, not you.

What happens to debts when someone dies?

When someone dies, any debts they leave are paid out of their 'estate' (the money and property they leave behind). You're only responsible for their debts if you had a joint loan or agreement or provided a loan guarantee - you aren't automatically responsible for a husband's, wife's or civil partner's debts.

The estate

A person's estate is made up of their cash (including from insurance) and investments, property and possessions.
After someone dies their estate is handled by one or more 'executors' - or an 'administrator' if there wasn't any will. These are usually a relative or friend and/or a solicitor.
If the estate's worth more than a certain amount the executor or administrator will need special permission - called 'probate' or 'letters of administration' - to be able deal with the person's affairs. This includes paying off their debts.

What happens if there's not enough money to pay off all debts?

In this case, the estate has to pay off any outstanding debts in a set order before anything is given to people named in the will, or until the money runs out.

Debts if you owned a home together

If you jointly owned your home and there's not enough money elsewhere in the estate to pay off the deceased person's debts, there is a chance that your home would have to be sold. Your options to avoid a sale depend on whether you owned it as 'tenants in common' or 'joint tenants'.

'Tenants in common'

If you were ‘tenants in common’, each of you owned a stated share of the property. The share belonging to the person who has died becomes part of their estate and goes to whoever is mentioned in their will. But if there are outstanding debts these must be paid first from that share.
To avoid a sale of the home, you and/or anyone due to inherit the second share will need to try to negotiate with those owed money ('creditors') and find the necessary money.

'Joint tenants'

If you were ‘joint tenants’, you owned the whole property together and the deceased person's share passes automatically to you.
But even though it's now in your estate, you can't ignore the debts. Creditors can apply for an 'Insolvency Administration Order' within five years of the death. This can have the effect of dividing the property in two and can force a sale. So it's in your interest to try to come to an agreement with people who are owed money, and try to pay them yourself.
Information as to whether you own the property as 'tenants in common' or 'joint tenants' may be shown in the Transfer or Lease by which you acquired the property or in a Trust Deed or in a Will. The land register may also provide a clue, but Land Registry cannot advise you on which kind of ownership you have chosen.

How different debts are paid off

Mortgages

If the mortgage lender required life insurance this may pay off the full amount of the loan. If there isn't any insurance - or if there were second mortgages not covered by insurance - the property may have to be sold.

Rent arrears

If you are a joint tenant in rented property, you must pay off any rent arrears. You are not liable for the previous rent arrears if you take over a tenancy.

Water rates

Anyone still living in the house is responsible for any arrears and for ongoing charges, even if their name isn't on the bill.

Council Tax

Anyone still living in the house is responsible for any arrears and ongoing charges, even if their name isn't on the bill. (Although there is a 25 per cent reduction for being the only adult in the house.) Council Tax stops if no one's living in the house.

Fuel bills

If you've been living in the property jointly you may be liable for fuel bill arrears. Contact National Debtline for advice - details below.

Hire purchase (HP agreements)

The buyer doesn't own the property until the last payment has been made. But if over one third of the agreement has been paid, the seller needs a court order to get the goods back.
Before returning goods or making payments, check to see if there was a payment protection plan.

Personal loans, credit cards and credit debt

Repayment of these debts must wait until others have been settled. If cards are held jointly, any debts will be the joint holder's responsibility - but check to see if you're covered by a payment protection plan.

Bank account
If this was in the person’s sole name, no one will be able to touch the money until the estate is sorted out. If you had a bank account in joint names, you can still usually use the account.

SOURCE: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingDebt/DebtsAndArrears/DG_10013093

Software Piracy and Penalty

What is Software Piracy?

Software piracy is the unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted software.  This can be done by copying, downloading, sharing, selling, or installing multiple copies onto personal or work computers. What a lot of people don’t realize or don’t think about is that when you purchase software, you are actually purchasing a license to use it, not the actual software.  That license is what tells you how many times you can install the software, so it’s important to read it.  If you make more copies of the software than the license permits, you are pirating.

Simply put, making or downloading unauthorized copies of software is breaking the law, no matter how many copies or people are involved.

Whether you are casually making a few copies for friends, loaning disks, distributing or downloading pirated software from the Internet, or buying a single software program and then installing it on multiple computers (including personal), you are committing copyright infringement—also known as software piracy.
It doesn’t matter if you are doing it to make money or not — if you or your company is caught copying software, you may be held liable under both civil and criminal law.  Under the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, software piracy is punishable by up to nine years imprisonment and a fine of up to P1.5 million. In addition, introducing pirated software into your computing environment can open you up to the risk of damage to your network through defective software or malicious code.

Why a License Matters?

 

You may not realize it, but software development involves a team effort that blends the creative ideas and talents of programmers, writers and graphic artists. And like most creative works, such as books, music and films, computer software is protected by copyright laws.

When you purchase software, you do not become the owner of the copyright. Rather, you are purchasing the right to use the software under certain restrictions imposed by the copyright owner, typically the software publisher. The precise rules are described in the documentation accompanying the software -- the licence. It is imperative that you understand and adhere to these rules. Most often, they state that you have the right to load the software onto a single computer and make one backup copy. If you copy, distribute or install the software in ways that the licence prohibits, whether you are swapping disks with friends and coworkers or participating in widespread duplication, you are violating federal copyright law. Even if you only help someone else make unauthorized copies, you are still liable under the copyright law.

Apart from legal consequences, using copied or counterfeit software also means:

• Greater exposure to software viruses, corrupt disks, or otherwise defective software;
• Inadequate or no documentation. No warranties;
• Lack of technical product support available to properly licenced users;
• Ineligibility for software upgrades offered to properly licenced users.

What is the Law?

Intellectual Property Rights in the Philippines are protected by the Intellectual Property (IP) Code (Republic Act 8293). The Philippines is a signatory of the Berne Convention for the protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).
Under the IP Code, “original works” are protected by the sole fact of their creation. It is not necessary to register a work, or to do anything else to obtain the protection of the code. Furthermore, original works are protected regardless of their content, quality, purpose, or the form of their expression. Among other things, the code expressly protects computer programs as literary works. The IP Code also protects the copyright in the manuals and packaging, which accompany the software.

How Does the Law Work?

The IP Code gives the copyright owner the exclusive right to do certain things with the “works,” which in this case are the computer program, the manuals, and the packaging.
These “exclusive rights” include:

• The right to copy the whole program or a substantial part of it.
• The right to adapt or translate the program.
• The right to rent the program to another person.

This permission is given in the form of a license. Every time you purchase a legitimate copy of a computer program, you will receive a license agreement. This agreement will tell you how you may use the computer program. If you do any thing with the computer program, which is not permitted under the license agreement (or the IP Code), then you will have breached the Code and will be liable for the penalties.
This means that you may only copy, adapt or rent a computer program if the copyright owner gives you the permission to do this.

What are the Penalties of Breaking the Law?

• 1st offense
  Imprisonment of 1 year to 3 years plus a fine ranging from P50,000 to P150,000.
• 2nd offense
  Imprisonment of 3 years and one day to 6 years plus a fine ranging from P150,000 to P500,000.
• 3rd offense to subsequent offenses
  Imprisonment of 6 years and one day to 9 years plus a fine ranging from P500,000 to P1.5 million.

Under Philippine law, the copyright owner may also bring a civil action for infringement of copyright. If the court finds that a breach of copyright has occurred, then it may award an injunction prohibiting future breaches, and/or either monetary compensation for the damage suffered, or an account of profits made as a result of the infringement. The court may also award the copyright owner moral and exemplary damages.
Under the Intellectual Property Code (RA 8293), the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines) may order the cancellation of any permit, authority or registration that the IP Philippines had granted. The Office may also impose various penalties including cease and desist orders, condemnation or seizure of the products, administrative fines and award of damages.

 

 

28 Simple Things You Can Do To Have A Fantastic 2011 by Bo Sanchez

28 Simple Things You Can Do To Have A Fantastic 2011 by Bo Sanchez

 

The keys to success are simple. I believe that real genius lies in sticking to the simple.

 

       Today, I’d like to “spoon feed” you.

 

       I’d like to give you 28 simple things that you can do this year that will revolutionize your life.

 

       If you do these 28 simple things, 2011 will be a blast.

 

1.        Laugh with inspiring friends at least once a week or more ---> tama! laughter is one of the best medicine & stress reliever! ÜÜÜ

 

2.        Have Mentors in the most important areas of your life

 

3.        Walk 30 minutes a day

 

4.        Use your talents for God by serving in a ministry

 

5.        Invest 20% of your income every month

 

6.        Read one inspiring book a month

 

7.        Cut TV watching to the barest minimum (Zero is a good number)

 

8.        Limit newspaper reading to 5 minutes or less a day

 

9.        Take vacations often

 

10.    Eat fruits for breakfast

 

11.    Always have a salad for lunch and dinner

 

12.    Start a business (or improve your business) this year

 

13.    Always be grateful to God and others

 

14.    Always live by your deepest values

 

15.    Spend time with God everyday

 

16.    Play with your kids at least once a day (If you don’t have any, borrow.)

 

17.    Have a weekly date with your spouse (If you don’t have any, don’t borrow!) ---> ahahahahah! tama nga naman... Ü

 

18.    Date your parents regularly ---> dapat gawin tuwing uuwi ng probinsya. 

 

19.    Before you sleep, remove all anger by forgiveness ---> sana di ko makalimutan lalo na pag pagod na sa trabaho... =(

 

20.    Be the kindest person you can be ---> effort to, lalo na pag may sumasagad ng pasensiya mo...

 

21.    Find your passion and live it fully

 

22.    Give more hugs (and receive as many)

 

23.    Listen to understand, not to reply ---> very enlightening...

 

24.    Celebrate more often

 

25.    Put people over projects

 

26.    Enjoy quiet and solitude

 

27.    Always give 10% of your income to God

 

28.    Keep dreaming