Dead men don't talk

I was told that suicide is not a wise solution to end someone’s misery. But the immediate escape that it offers proves to be too enticing to resist. Some believe that suicide is a cowardly act as it is an act of escaping instead of facing the problems head-on but some believe that the act in itself is a daring and bold move. I won’t dare to make any judgments on that.

The death of former AFP Chief of Staff and former Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes was a sad chapter to the investigations of the Senate and the House about the plea bargaining agreement entered by the Office of the Ombudsman and former AFP Comptroller Carlos Garcia. The former military comptroller was accused of pocketing P303 million in kickbacks during his time in the military. If we would believe in the testimonies of the different witnesses who have surfaced, then there are other powerful officials and generals who are involved in the corruption in the military.

However, the death of Reyes has attracted more questions and suspicions. Some believe that Reyes knew something that will incriminate other influential people. If this is the case, I can only imagine the pressure that he has endured from these people. Will he allow his reputation and his family to be dragged into the controversy or will he spill the beans and implicate his comrades? He had chosen neither. With his death, it will be up to the other people involved in this controversy to spill the beans. It will definitely not come from him. What he knew will be buried with him in his grave. Dead men don’t talk….

I can only hope that something good will come out of these investigations and eventually the people who have salted away the funds of the military will be prosecuted.



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I'm back!

After weeks of reflection, soul-searching, meditation and relaxation, I’m finally back. It’s been three months since the last post that I wrote for this blog. It crossed my mind not to return to blogging and let this blog die a natural death. Stress at work and time constraints are the top reasons why blogging has become a luxury.

But this blog has been with me for quite some time, the 2 or 3 years that I have spent blogging is not something that you can just throw out of the window.

I weighed my options and a decision has been made. I will continue to blog for another year. At least, this blog will stay until 2012. In fact, I just recently renewed this domain.

I admit that it will not be the same. Gone are the days when I can blog for 2 to 3 hours and drop EC until I’ve reached the maximum number of drops allowed. I will just take this in strides. No dropping of EC this time. No pressures, no promises, no expectations. I will blog when I have time. I will drop a note to fellow bloggers once in a while. A new post perhaps a week or every weekend is not that bad. But who knows?

I’m just glad that I have managed to write this post. I’m really happy and excited to be back.

Happy weekend to all!



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Sykes One Year-end Party, the biggest Christmas party in the Country

Last Saturday marked the return of the Sykes Year End Party unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the occasion. My colleagues who attended the party gave positive comments about the party. Of course there were also complaints but that is expected.

Anyway, the event made the news over the weekend. Here's one from abs-cbnNEWS.com.



Call center holds biggest Christmas party in the country
abs-cbnNEWS.com

MANILA, Philippines - Sykes has started to celebrate news that the Philippines has overtaken India as world’s top location for call centers.

The firm held its biggest ever Christmas party last Saturday at the SM Mall of Asia open grounds with a record breaking attendance of more than 9000 call center agents.

The party, called “One Sykes,” symbolizes the firm’s commitment to the local industry.

Dean Van Ormer, senior director for Philippine operations, said: “We’ll continue to have stronger presence in the Philippines…to be the employer of choice for Filipinos.”

The firm recently purchased rival ICT Group through a cash-and-stock deal worth $263 million. This paved the way for the firm to tap further the potential of the domestic market.

Industry analysts earlier said the steady supply of English-speaking college graduates as well as strong support from the government allowed the industry to overtake India in terms of revenues.

One of the event’s highlights was a spectacular fireworks display from the people behind World Pyro Olympics. The Pyro Theater Show incorporated lights, sounds, fireworks and live performances from local talents.

The Sykes employees also presented a unity mob dance, one of the night’s highlights. While dancing, the employees held on to a chain of light “to signify their being one as Sykes and their higher ambitions for the years to come.”
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Web hosting hub

More and more people are discovering the joys of blogging every day. In fact, I have friends and acquaintances that recently have embarked on their own blogging journey. No wonder as everyone has a story to tell and emotions to express.

A friend who just started blogging asked me if it is best to get the services of a web hosting company this early in their blogging journey. I said to her that if she really wants to take blogging seriously then getting her own web host is a sensible investment. However, I told her that I know some people who were all excited when they started blogging but then slowly lose the focus and enthusiasm after a few months of blogging. So I told her that she can try any of the free blogging platforms first and then if she is sure that she’s really into blogging then migrate the free domain into her own custom domain and get the services of a web hosting company. This is what I did for this blog which now has its own custom domain.

I also warned my friend not to be fooled by the myriad of web hosting companies in the market. I told her that it is best to get acquainted with the many features and benefits that she should be looking for a reliable blog web hosting service. I advise her to compare the web hosting plans of different providers as well as the reviews from real customers. I even gave her a website for a web hosting hub to help her decide on the best web hosting provider that will suit her needs. I told her that there are cheap but reliable web hosting services out there. There are also blog hosting services which cater to beginning bloggers and those that are running multiple blogs like me. When creating your blog, you can now choose between WordPress or b2evolution which is best for bloggers who have multiple blogs. I find it pretty cool. I wished I had known about this when I was looking for a web hosting company.

Well, blogging is a continuous journey. Surely, there are lots of things that we can learn as we go along. The challenge is for us to learn from our past mistakes and to keep on going despite of all the challenges ahead.

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On vacation

Life is full of uncertainties. You can never say what will happen next.
That makes life exciting. We will surely encounter failures and triumphs as we journey through life. Yes, you may experience a couple of setbacks but these are not reasons or excuses to stop reaching for our goals and purpose in life.

I just wrote on my last post that I intend to write more often on my two blogs for the rest of the year but reading the title of this post will give you the idea that what I initially planned is not going to happen. Yes, I have decided to go on a blogging vacation so you'll not be seeing any updates on this blog for the next 3 or 4 weeks. I hope it will be shorter than that but I have learned my lessons so I will not make promises that I cannot deliver. I'll be back when I am ready.

I would like to thank all the visitors and fellow bloggers who continue to visit this blog.

Thank you to all my fellow Entrecard droppers who continue to drop their cards on this blog. I am sorry that I will not be able to reciprocate your drops while I'm on vacation.

I also would like to apologize to my fellow Blogging for Fun Yahoo group members as I have not been able to visit some of my fellow members' blogs in the last couple of weeks and in the next few weeks. I'll make it up to you when I'm back.

That's all for now. I'm actually writing this post on an internet cafe. I'll give you the real story when I'm back.

Thank you and Goodbye for now!

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Moving On.

As of writing, it’s 49 days to go before Christmas and 55 days to go before the New Year! Whew, time flies really fast, right? Before we know it, we are again saying hello to a brand new year and goodbye to 2010. I now hear Christmas songs on the radio and some neighboring houses now boast of their Christmas trees and decors in time for the season.

There’s really not much that we can do about it, whether we like it or not, the days will pass. What we can only do is to make the most out of our lives. There’s no use to brood and think of all the mistakes and failures that we have done in the past. What’s done is done. There are only two words that we can do: MOVE ON! Of course, let’s learn our lessons from past mistakes; apologize for the people we have wronged but ultimately we have to move on. The faster we realize that it is just a waste of energy to live in the past is the better for us.

There’s not much activity on this blog for the past few months. I wished I could have done better but what is done is done. What I can only do is to end the year differently. I intend to post more often on this blog and the other for the next couple of weeks until the end of the year and I hope I can sustain it until next year. In fact, I may start changing a couple of things in terms of the over-all appearance of my two blogs. I already started changing the layout of my other blog yesterday and I thought it was a good thing. I am also thinking of changing the layout for this blog but I’m still looking for a better template. I have come to love this custom layout but some people are saying that I should change my blog’s layout from time to time. Well, I will not touch it until I have a better one to replace it with.

That's all for now. Let's all have a lovely weekend!!

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Complementing email and social networking for small businesses

Running a small business can be tough. Reaching out to customers can be difficult as these businesses don’t have the money that multinational firms spend on advertising and marketing. Even with the advent of online marketing, small businesses are still on the disadvantage as they don’t have the resources to maximize all the information that they have and create connections with prospective customers.

Sure, you may have an email list and you may have been sending emails to prospective customers but emails don’t always convert to sales. Although some may respond to emails, some of the marketing emails may end up in the spam folders because you simply don’t have the necessary information about these people apart from their email addresses. You don’t know these peoples’ interests or their demographics, you don’t know if these people will be able to use the services or products that your business offers.

However, with the rising popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, email marketing can now be complemented by making connections through these social networks. More and more businesses now employ social marketing campaign.

But how can you successfully connect with customers everywhere in the web if you only have their email addresses? This is the problem and it seems that Flowtown now has the answer. Flowtown is a platform designed to help businesses connect with customers in the social web. Using only an email address, they can now get information like the name, age, gender, occupation, location and the social networking sites where the person is hanging out on the web. Businesses are also given tools to interact with these customers.

So if you’re a small business owner making funny T-shirts and going through your email lists you discovered that you have more customers who are using Twitter compared to Facebook, then you will know where to exert more efforts in your social networking campaigns.

Change is constant. Just like anything in this world, the way we are doing business is constantly changing. The ability to adapt to these changes can spell the difference in the success or failure of any business endeavors.



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