My Dad, you're my inspiration and I want to thank you....

  for showing us love.

  for raising us up as responsible and God-fearing individuals.

  for dedicating your life in taking care of us.

  for helping us reach our potentials and work on our goals.

  for treating us equally, even though I and my siblings have different opinions.

  for correcting my reason when I was being irrational.

  for supporting my decisions on what I have to do with my life and career.

  for believing in me.

  for giving me advice on wrong decisions I've made and stupid mistakes I've done.

You made me and my siblings safe whenever we're vulnerable and in times of crisis.

You acted both our mom and dad when Mom passed away. I fully understand now, how difficult is, raising us up without a wife. So from now on, all the good things you've done will be forever inculcated on my mind. It would always remind me of the true meaning of RESPONSIBILITY...

But why is it so difficult to say this in front of you? That's why I decided to put these words on the net, hoping you'd read it someday.

I just thought, that this would be a great time to show our appreciation for you. For this important day,  let me cherish all those beautiful things you've done for us. And serve as day to day reminder that I and my siblings have to spend our time in taking care of you.

I know these words aren't enough to express our thoughts 'bout you. But I really mean it. This blog is dedicated to you, so let me greet you " Happy Father's Day, Tatay".....

  The prices of commodities are zooming up as fast as the bullet trains. We should take considerations on saving money, petrol, electricity and water and take advantage the free health and community services offered by the government.

  On buying thing like clothes or gadgets, we must first ask ourselves if we really need it. Are you familiar in impulse buying? Sometimes, we only buy things just to spend or we think it look good to us. Not clearly thinking if it is essentially important. A typical example, as we walked across the mall, we saw a well-made shirt or dress displayed in a clothing shop. The following day, you saw it again and you're itching to purchase it only to find out that it's expensive, an equivalent to your 3 day rate. You have to ask yourself over and over if we really need it. Do I really need it? What other important things that I could buy with my money right now? Unless if it a birthday present for yourself then buy it. Just kidding...

Tell yourself, yes I want it but I don't really need it right now.

  One of the best ways to save up is to a lot 10% from your salary and have it deposited in separate savings account. It would be best not use this money for spending on things rather for emergency purposes only. At least, when the tough times comes, you'll not over-stressed to borrow money from your friends or relatives. You can get from your own savings.

  It sounds simple, but having a piggy bank (where you can put a few coins everyday) is another good way to save up. You'll never notice that the coins you invested could turn to a hundred bucks in a week. I have been doing it since I was a kid. I can say it really works.

  These are some of simple ways to save money. It's up to you if you want to try it. I believe everyone wants to be financially stable. Aren't we?

  Do you have other ideas that you could share to me and to other members? If yes, that would be awesome....

This week in my country, the Philippines and the other catholic countries in the world, are celebrating the Lenten season. This would be a perfect time to reflect on Christ's death and resurrection. A time to reflect on the things or mistakes we did in the past. Be it a lot of heartaches, sadness, pity, sorrow, joy, and celebration. A time to look back and compare ourselves if improve the way we think, act and speak.

To ask ourselves the following questions.

Have we learned from our mistakes?

Did we laugh when someone in pain?

Did we help someone whose in need?

Have you thanked your family and friends for the help that had given you?

Did you emphatise for those in vain and underpriviledge?

Are we humble enough to accept our faults?

Blessed a person who follows Christ's righteousness. These are the questions that we could ask ourselves but the important thing is have we forgiven someone who betrayed us?

Here are my Top 10 things why I love MyEC. We might be sharing the same reasons.

1. Being a member of this social networking site, I've met interesting people and continuously meeting different people around the world, with the same goal, to be fluent in English.

2. It's educational. All the things you need to learn are all in this site. Be it on grammar, pronunciation, and articles about the English language. You'll have the chance to learn different places too.

3. You can be artistic. I can upload a photo and tell something about it. You can upload your photos too or something that interests you. In this way, you can share information to other learners and teachers too.

4. You can share your thoughts thru blogging. Writing a blog enhances your writing skills and you could "think out of the box". You could also ask opinions of others and respond to the learners' ideas and thoughts.

5. You develop self-confidence. By continuously practicing your writing, reading, speaking and listening skills, you can feel that you're improving. And because of that, it motivates you to be better mentally, physically and emotionally.

6. You can be creative. Why? It's because no one will judge you if you make mistakes here. You could actually get tips from teachers on things you want to improve.

7. It's entertaining. Blogs, video and audio recordings uploaded here give you ideas on certain things like experiences from other learners, teachers' innovative ways  for you to learn easily. Just what Tara Benwell's strategies to make learning fun and hassle-free.

8. It's self-motivating. When you see yourself accomplish a good thing like, you wrote a good blog and friends commended you for a job well done, it challenges you to achieve more. You're like aiming always for the best.

9. Your opinion matters. Whatever information you share (good materials OK) in this site helps other people and the way they're thinking. In your own simple way, you could help someone's bad day to be enjoyable for him or her by giving encouragement, tips and ideas.

10. It's fun. Have you ever felt like the eagerness to log in here everytime you have a chance? It's because you want to share something to your friends, you want to hear their thoughts, opinions, and knowledge. You want to hear their experiences and learn something in it.

So there, my top 10 things why I love My EnglisgClub. Did I share enough? I'm sure you have your reasons too. Feel free to share it with me because your opinions matter indeed....

Watching movies is one of my hobbies, whenever I have a spare time, I turn on the television and check out the best movies available. One particular channel is Starmovies. It shows or airs movies that has subtitles. My viewing habits became more interesting because I can fully understand the dialogue of every actor. Did you know that through the subtitles, we could practice our reading and listening skills? Yes, you heard me right. When we try to read the words shown as subtitle, somehow our reading ability progresses. No matter how fast the dialogue may seem, we can try to apprehend what was flashing on the television. Good thing because of that we can easily spot new words and add to the lists of our vocabularies.

Aside from learning new words, we could also be familiar with the pronunciation of the words. If it is an American word it's much easier to understand but the British slang is interesting to hear just like the characters of Harry Potter or Kate Winslet's dialogue in the movie "Titanic". I bet everybody is familiar with her. How about the way Celine Dion speaks whenever she has an interview. The combination of her French and Canadian descent made her appealing to the audience around the world. I'm sure there are a lot of celebrities and their movies that we could try to watch and understand how they speak in their own way.

There are still a lot of benefits in watching movies with subtitles. If you have ideas other that what I mentioned above, feel free to share it with me.

So what was the movie you've seen that has subtitle? Did you understand the story very well. I bet you did....

Have you ever noticed that everytime we pray, it makes us feel assured, humbled and selfless? Like you could share your thoughts, plans, and things that you want to accomplish to God. I really can't describe the feeling, all I can say it is wonderful. We can't please other people to like us no matter what but if you try to talk to our God even just a couple of minutes, somehow our burden is lessen.

Through prayers, we can wish our love ones, friends, neighbors even enemies to be closer to us. It makes us feel worthy to the eyes of God. Humble could be the right term. It's really good for our soul.

So each time you pray, do it with an open heart not just giving requests to God that He can grant our wishes in an instant. maybe we should try to look our selves first, and observe that everything that we see and feel, the air we breathe in and the love we have are all gifts from God. Therefore we should be thankful from Him all the time. God Bless you all my friends here in MyEc. May love be in our hearts forever...................

Good day to all members of MyEnglishClub.

It's really amazing how the information in different fields of communication, science, and other fields of learning helps us in our daily activities. For example, watching news and current events help us aware on what's happening in our surroundings. It makes us informed and broaden our knowledge that we can use for our decisions in life. Like if we see news on television, one common example is the recent quake and tsunami in Sendai, Japan. From what happened to that country, many people now are aware of how destructive a calamity were and what we can do to be prepared once the next calamity arrives. Government agencies are trying their best to inform the public on the danger of earthquake and other disasters like forest fires, car accidents and other natural and man-made disasters, like the radioactive leaks in Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

On the other hand, Entertainment and Music make us informed on the latest trends, fashion, and what's new or whose making a buzz. All of these are come from media, the internet and, people can now access every information in just one click of our hand.

So let's hope that every information we get, we can able to use it to make our lives better. Good luck...

Color can be found in different places. It is in you and it is in me. The moods we have can be affected as the way we look at colors. And colors could be in our attitude, the way we perceive life and how we react in certain situations.

When I was applying for a job, I remember, the interviewer asked me if you are about to sell something especially if he or she is blind, how would you explain or convince him or her to patronage your product.  Of course I thought of it as a tricky question. The interviewer was testing me if I could speak fluently and at the same time, gauging my selling skills. I told her that you can convince a blind person to purchase your product by giving examples, and one of that was to use color. Because color has moods. Like blue represents calmness, green is for tranquility, yellow is for vibrancy and hope, red is fierceness and white is purity. I didn't mention black because it was obvious that the customer is blind. All he or she sees is darkness. As a salesperson, it doesn't matter if you sell a lot, what counts are proper attitude and trust to the product that your selling. It's like showing the real colors in you....

You're lucky if you have a rainbow in your heart.... you're unique!

As I'm thinking on what blog should I write. It suddenly pops out in my head, the tragedy that hit northern Japan yesterday. A magnitude 8.9 quake hits Sendai at around 2:45 pm. After 30 minutes, a gigantic tsunami wipes out the entire city, leaving thousands of people feared dead. There are reports that the nuclear reactor has damaged and the possible of leakage is expected. Let us hope that the damage to that reactor will not push through as it will greatly affects the health of people living on that area.

As far as I know Japan is obviously a very rich country. One of the leading countries in Asia. No matter how great a  country is, it would be worthless when a calamity or force of nature strikes out.

I'm so amazed by the effort of United Nations, Red Cross and other international agencies willingness to help that country. Donations and relief goods keep on coming in as I watched CNN. I'm certain that Japan will recover again and I pray for the safety of it's people including Filipinos working and living there. It only shows a truly helping hand in the event of crisis...

Back here in the Philippines, the authorities are doing their best to inform people about the dangers of tsunami, how to be prepared when the calamity strikes and tips on how to construct a house in a standard ways like  you have to check the land if it has a fault and the sketch plan and materials used if you want to purchase a house. I'm still thankful that the tsunami didn't reach here in my country. I monitored the news last night whether the tsunami will reach my country, thankfully it didn't.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. People especially couples having their plans on how to spend the day. But what about if you're single? Let me give you some ideas on how to spend the V day joyfully.

If you're on your way to work, smile and think positively, greet someone you know like friends, co-workers and your family. You can prepare a little note and hand it over to them. You may include a simple prayer or a poem so you can make their day beautiful. Isn't it amazing when you know you make someone happy just for a day?

A text message and instant messaging can be a useful tools to send your message.

If you plan to stay in your house, you can cook something that you neglect to try because you're busy at work or preoccupied with so many things. You can cook a simple menu like spaghetti or baked macaroni, don't forget to make a dessert. Good foods can boost your mood and make you happy. You can search online for proper guidelines on how to prepare you're food. Even if you don't have a partner, you can share it to your friends or neighbor.

Ask your other friends if they don't have other plans on Valentine's day. You can visit a museum, a park, mall or spend your day outside the country if you really not that broke financially. But if your in a tight budget, you can watch a good movie (an English movie) at home, have some popcorn and soda instead of watching in a movie theater. You can also read a book or a magazine of your choice.

If you are a girl it is not bad to buy chocolates or flowers for yourself, treat it as a reward for a job well done or for a hard day's work. You can also buy flowers to your parents or siblings.

You can try to go to church and offer a mass for your family, health and blessings you received. You may also include in your prayers to find your other half.

Get online and greet your MyEC friends, it can be a fun way to interact with your friends and use the English language to share your thoughts and ideas.

Lastly give love, this is what the essence of Valentines. Help your parents or siblings on household work, prepare a snack for them and tell them how much you love them. Remember that giving love is not just for this day, it can be everyday... 

I hope in my own little ideas, you'll be able to spend your Valentine's day gladly. Until my next blog. Thank you for reading....Happy Valentine's!

Robert

Cakes come in different shapes and sizes. But why is it so popular during birthdays? Here in the Philippines every occasion could have one, be it on birthdays, fiestas, anniversaries or just a simple gathering of friends.

Some people say that our birthdays isn't complete without a cake. I think it is the joy that brings to the celebrant. Who doesn't want to blow a candle on a cake? We all do right? Children love it so much too.

Other people say that cakes can bring good luck especially if it is round. It means fortune and wealth. But I think, it'll be sweeter if you share it with friends. While eating cake, we can exchange thoughts and ideas on different matters. It'll be best if we communicate in English. Yum!

While we love eating cakes, just make sure to eat in moderation because a cake has a lot of sugar and calories. We don't want to gain another pounds.

So to all cake lovers including me, enjoy eating it, share it and eat in moderation...

Merry Christmas!

It's less than 6 hours and it's Christmas here in the Philippines. So How do we spend our Christmas?

I would say, be merry. Christmas is the time to enjoy our life because we are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. This is the time to share our blessings and help the needy or less fortunate. If you're rich, that would be the best advantage to share what you have, give to charities or donate something that would make the other people fortunate.

Try to organize a party for kids. For all we know, Christmas is for kids too. Celebrate this special day to bond with your friends and family. Prepare a healthy meal and think of fun games to make the occassion memorable. Don't forget to bring a camera to capture every moments with your love ones. Upload or share your photos here in MyEC. Isn't it amazing if you have happy photos that you can glimpse every time your feeling sad.

You can also drop by in church and attend a mass. After that you can go to amusement parks or watch a good English movie. If you want to be alone, then this would be the time to reflect and think of the months that passed by. What are the different accomplishments that you had so far and how we can make the next Christmas better than we are having now.

In the end, It is us who will decide if we want our Christmas enjoyable, worthy or exciting. Having a clear conscience is the best Christmas gift that we can ever receive.........

Happy Holidays and a Blessed Christmas again.

Robbie 

People say the Eyes are window to our soul. It is a gift of sight. You are lucky and blessed if you have a nice pair of eyes. But do you know how to take care of your eyes?

There are a lot of tips you can find on the net about taking good care of our eyes. But it will only work if you follow those tips. If you love to read, make sure you adjust the way you hold your book or magazine facing the light. The quality of light affects our eyes so don't read if it's too dim or you don't have enough light. If you're working in front of a computer or monitor for a 8 hours, try to rest your eyes for a couple of minutes. Take a nap during break, a five minute nap will do. Glancing on other things in your surroundings will de-stress your eyes. If you want to wash your face, try not to wet your eyes. You can use a clean cloth or cotton to wipe dirt or oil on your eyes. Or better yet, close your eyes for 5 minutes before you wash your face. You can take breathing exercise too while closing your eyes. It works especially to women who wear make-up.

Vegetables especially carrots and squash are good source of beta-carotene which is good for our eyes. Green-leafy vegetables are good too. So good food and effort to take care our eyes is equal to perfect vision. An eight hour sleep will make us alert and in good mood when we wake up. And don't forget to use sun-glasses when going out, even it's not sunny, there will be dust that can irritate out eyes.

I hope anyone who reads this blog will find it helpful and interesting. For all we know it is hard to be blind. Our eyes are gift from above.................

Robert