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Today is September 9, 2009

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On September 9, 2009

Got multiple text messages regarding the date today.

Seems like there’s a special attention to it as we have three 9’s on the date (09/09/09).

September – 9th month in the calendar year
9 – 9th day of the month
2009 – 9 as the last digit of the current year

Why is this day soo special?

This is the last set of repeating single digit dates that we’ll see for almost a century!
9 means forgiveness, compassion & success.
today also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2+5+2 = 9)
9 is also associated with long life.

So what did you do today?

As for me, I spent 15 hours of this day working 🙁

I’m Nuffnang’s Featured Blogger for September 2009!

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On September 2, 2009

Sometime August, I was informed that I have been chosen to be Nuffnang’s featured blogger for September. I was so honored & happy to hear that. I was asked to write an article about me and my site. That article will then be posted on Nuffnang’s site.

Today, the article was posted. There are so many bloggers out there in the Philippines, being considered as one of the featured bloggers is such a surprise. Thank you so much Nuffnang for the opportunity to share my site to your members. 🙂

Nuffnang is an online platform that allows advertisers to serve graphic advertisements into blogs. Aside from this, Nuffnang is also a community for bloggers. The company do organize and support several events for bloggers like parties, meet & greet, etc.

You can see my writeup here. 😀

Toastmasters Meeting in Mandarin Language

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 29, 2009

I attended the Mandarin version of the Toastmasters meeting last night. If you remember my post last time, I made a promise that I’ll be attending the meetings often. Unfortunately, I have global meetings scheduled every wednesdays that end 10PM, so I’ll have to beg off wednesday meetings.

I’ll probably move from Emperor Toastmasters to its sister club, Camanava Toastmasters. This is because their meetings are scheduled every saturday mornings and the schedule is more doable for me.

The friday ones I will attend as schedule permits 🙂

I attended the mandarin-version for the 1st time. And it’s really cool! Would you believe we all tried our very best to speak mandarin all throughout the meeting. It’s pretty hard for us especially we don’t get to use that language much in our everyday life.

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The books/manuals are also in chinese!!! It’s sad though that the book available during the meeting is written in Simplified chinese, I’m not really good at it and I can’t read most of the words. I’m more comfortable with Traditional chinese, there is one available at Toastmasters though, our co-toastmaster just don’t have it during that time 🙂

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The meeting yesterday was attended by 6 members. It was a pretty intimate meeting so we didn’t get to use the stage anymore. We talked while eating our dinner. The first hour was used to introduce ourselves in chinese then we just chatted.

Later in the night, the others started talking about religion & history. Those 2 topics are totally not my thing hehehehe so I ended up talking to the younger ones and we talked about photography and hobbies 😉

Here’s our picture from last night, more pictures here.

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Emperor Toastmasters Club

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 19, 2009

So glad I attended last night’s toastmaster’s meeting. It has been a long time since I last attended the sessions mainly because of schedule conflicts. The meetings are set every 1st & 3rd wednesdays and 4th friday of the month. I’ll make sure I’ll attend frequently next time 🙂

If you wanna know what toastmasters is, it is an organization that helps people become more competent in public speaking 🙂 I joined it last year because I really have troubles speaking in public, whenever the spotlight is on me, I just black out. Since I haven’t been attending the meetings much, I still have this fear.

Basically, toastmasters meet weekly where they practice their skills by filling a meeting role. Meeting roles are as follow:

Toastmaster of the Evening
General Evaluator
Language Evaluator
Table Topics Master
Time Manager
Ah Counter
Table Topics Evaluator
Speech Evaluator

Here is the program schedule that we follow every meeting:

Opening Portion (Invocation, Toastmaster’s Promise, Opening Remarks, Word of the Day, Introduction of Members & Guests)
Introduction of Toastmaster of the Meeting (Opening, Introduction of Meeting Roles)
Educational Portion (Table Topics, Speeches)
Evaluation Portion (General Evaluator Opening Remarks, Table Topics Evaluation, Speech Evaluation, Language Evaluation, Ah Counter Report, Timer Report, General Evaluator Closing Remarks)
Concluding Portion (Closing Remarks, President’s Time, Guest Observations, Adjournment, Picture Taking)

Aside from being able to improve your speaking & leadership skills. One other thing that I love with the club I’m in, Emperor Toastmasters, is that the people are just sooooo warm & nice.

If you are interested to join toastmasters, you can choose a location near you. Just click here, you won’t regret it 🙂

Pictures from the August 19 meeting can be found here.

Another Car-Related Misfortune

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 15, 2009

See that tire? That’s mine :'(

I was driving along Edsa last night when I suddenly heard weird sounds. I ignored it at first and thought that it was just noisy outside and besides my car is an old one. So I thought it was normal.

After awhile, the sound was really getting louder & louder. I already had this gut feeling that I was running flat. Unfortunately though, There was no gas station around.

So I have to drive till I reach a gas station located at Aurota Boulevard. I asked if anyone of them can help me change my tire. One of them did 🙂 I gave the guy Php 100 as an incentive, if not for him, I don’t even know how I will go home with that kind of tire damage.

Now I have a new dilemma. Another suprise expense for me, it seems like I’m spending so much on my car now. The other year I spent 60k on repairs, last year about 20k and this year, I’m just scared, don’t want to even think about it.

Looking at the positive side, I’m safe!!! Imagine driving with that kind of tire? I can easily enter into car accidents but I was safe! Thank God! 🙂

Change all 4 tires, buy 1 more extension tire. And the budget? I’m so dead. :'(

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Update (August 21, 2009):

Finally bought 4 tires, decided to get Yokohama. Thanks to Ankol for keeping me company the whole morning and guiding me on what to do 🙂

I would also like to thank Alvin for giving the contact, got a huge discount from a retailer! Thanks also to my colleagues & friends for sharing their knowledge about cars & tires, really appreciate it.

Aside from changing tires, my car also had change oil & tune up :).

Here are the breakdown of expenses:

Yokohama Tires (185/65 R14 86H) – Php 10,000
Balance Weights for the Tires – Php 160
4 Pieces Spark Plugs – Php 380
4 Bottles Motor Oil – Php 1,400
1 Oil filter – Php 160
1 Air Cleaner – Php 200
Engine Tune Up – Php 150
Change Oil – Php 200
Break Fluid – Php 70

TOTAL: Php 12,720