Worried

Note: I initially wanted to keep this post private because I’m afraid people I know might read this and form their  judgments about me. But I realized that I just have to share this so that other people can learn from my experience.  Because after I wrote this post I really felt better and my day also went great… Especially at work. It seemed to turn 360 degrees just because I began my day with the right attitude and mindset. So hope this helps you too… 🙂 

Today I woke up worried that I might have not done my best in my job. I’m afraid that I am not giving enough for my job. I am doubting myself and I wish I can fight this feeling. I should just feel confident and slowly but surely be great at what I do. Contribute to the team. I should not let anybody down or put me down.

The only way they can let me down is when I screw up on purpose. I didn’t get here without hard work. I am here because I deserved to be here. I am here because they saw something in me.

The root cause of all this is that I am afraid.  Afraid of losing what I have. Afraid of not being enough. Afraid of failure. I am operating from a wrong disposition:fear.

It used to work out fine when I was new in the industry, because I wasn’t afraid. I had nothing to lose. I was eager to learn from everyone else around me. But now, I’m getting proud and afraid. Two very dangerous things.

So now, I stop being afraid. And just learn to trust myself. Learn. Keep in mind that I am here to learn and that I really don’t have anything to lose. I just need to get over myself, work well with other people, and give it my best shot. Instead of waking up and wondering “how have I messed up yesterday? Or  I should have done this or I shouldn’t have done that.”I should start everyday asking myself “how can I be greater than yesterday? Or what will life teach me today? Or how will I have fun and enjoy this day?”

Everyday is a new day. A chance to start anew. Smile. Be thankful. Expect great things. Attract good things.

using speech to text in evernote

Note: You might not understand the post below. This is the result of my experiment in using speech to text engine of the app Ever note. I was trying to write a blog by just dictating my thoughts. Is it feasible? You be the judge. 😁

I am trying figure out how to increase my motivation at work . this is great baby 3 speak mind .
text to speech its amazing . how can I increase my productivity at work ? maybe there are numbers overly of weeks ways how to make myself productive . I’m making sense ? this is crazy . I am talking to myself .

I discovered that I can take notes using evernote by speaking to it . note taking has ever been so cool. although , sometimes evernote does not recognize the word words that I am saying so it keeps on typing the wrong words . instead the instead off me taking down know no no no no no. (I wanted to say notes here and ended up with a number of no’s… ) okay this is the part where I have cool 2 let’s do it again . I was trying to say that instead all off me taking down notes , I am getting conscious of what I am  saying . and if I am saying right . because my pronunciation might be causing evernote 2 capture the wrong words . I just don’t know if this is still making any sense . I could have just typed these words but I am enjoying this speech to text synthesis . I remember my thesis when I was grad school . it was all about using an existing engine for speech to text synthesis . that was just about 5 years ago . and now , it is already incorporated in apps. isn’t it amazing ?

if ever you are reading these and you don’t understand it , or if there are wrong words then pardon me because I am trying 2 make this work . now I will be talking a little faster . let’s see how good this program is . I am tempted not to make an added edit does it 2 this blog polls pole cool cool post (I’m getting desperate here. I just wanted to say post!!!). just to check is this is really awesome . no that is not what I say said . I am getting I love the longer time what ? what the hack hey heck are you typing question ? oh no . Period did not this it is not working out . reading it anybody ? I don’t think anybody and 1 anyone understanding will understand days this . if I either if either it is either I am saying the word words incorrectly or bozo they saying . okay , hi it is time to sleep.

Thinking of how to be better at stock market investing

Uh oh. The Philippine stock market is gaining momentum again.
My portfolio is looking good. And now I start to regret again that I didn’t buy good stocks when they were still so cheap. Sigh. Now they are getting expensive again.

I’m still not very good at this but I really want to learn.

I’ve learned that some of Warren Buffet’s principles are the following:
1. Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful. Meaning when it is a bull market and the stocks are over priced, you should think twice … but if it is a bear market and prices of good companies are low, you should buy more because it won’t take long for the prices to go up again.
2. What you don’t know or understand, you don’t touch. He saved himself from losing millions of money by not investing in businesses that he himself don’t understand. For example, even if he’s really close to Bill Gates, he still doesn’t invest in tech companies like Microsoft. At least that is what I heard…
3. One way to earn in the stock market is not to lose money. Haha. Crazy, right? But it’s really all about proper timing. You have to know when you have to buy and when to sell. And keep in mind that fluctuations in the stock market is normal. But good stocks usually have an upward trend over time. They say that in the short term, stock prices are affected by news, media, even gossip and speculations. But in the long term stock prices are really dictated by the company’s profitability and growth. So you really have to keep an eye on the blue chips.

Oh, I still really have a lot to learn from the Truly Rich Club

Enjoying Note Anytime on NEXUS 7

I received my order from Amazon today – my new spotted pink case that came with a free stylus. Yey! I love it! You know, I realized that I prefer buying front Amazon than from Best Buy. I just got a lot of choices from the former and it is so easy to compare prices, specs, and there are a lot of colors and designs to choose from. Plus I love it when I arrive home and there is a package waiting at the door. Hehe.

Tonight is supposed to be a reading night but I spent it in learning Note Anytime. It is my new app love. 🙂 you might want to try it!

Brainstorming: Just got to let this out my head

Thing I’m busy with the past few days:

My new Nexus 7 2nd gen tablet – I love it!
Reading books – can’t wait to register to the nearest local library!
Watch The Walking Dead
Catching up with sleep and normalize my sleep pattern

Shopping at Amazon for accessories of Nexus
Budgeting money
Watching and reflecting on Starting over again
Thinking about how to get fit
Thinking about menus for the week
Productivity
Retirement
Stock market
Thinking about how to have more time

The books and I

I’ve spent one of the best weekends here in Austin. I’m on my 9th week here and so far I’ve been having a good time. Except that I miss my books and reading so much. I know I can’t buy too many paperbacks and hard covers while I’m here because it would be expensive to ship them back home when it’s time to leave.

I have flirted with the idea of buying Kindle Paperwhite. It’s about $119 and based on the reviews, it’s the best e-book reader yet. But my friends persuaded me to get a tablet instead. And when we were at Best Buy, I saw SamSung’s Galaxy Tab 8.4 and I liked it! But it was a little over the budget at $400. Luckily, I only transferred $300 from my savings to my checkings account. It was  supposed to be enough for the Kindle and a week of grocery or any other expenses. I went home empty handed and decided to think about the purchase.

I spent the first half of my Saturday searching for the best device to satisfy my hunger for reading. I considered Kata T3 because it was cheap and seemed to have good specs. But I’ve read some people saying that the after sales were bad so I decided against it. If I was in the Philippines it could have been easier to get an exchange from an Owtel shop if ever I got a defective device (just like my i1) but since I’m in the United States, it’s wiser to get a device from a known company.

By lunch time, I decided to go for Google’s Nexus 7 ($239 +19.72 tax = $258.72) and ordered it from Amazon. It had good reviews and seemed like a good deal. It will be arriving on Tuesday!!! Yey! But I still can’t wait to get my hands on a book. I desperately want to read one already. Luckily, it’s already the beginning of Spring here and the weather was perfect. I decided to walk to Target. It was actually my first time to go there and I was amazed that it was only about a 10-min walk from my apartment. Perfect!!!

When I was already in Target, it took me a long time to choose the book to bring home. There was just too many that I want! But I decided to settle with “Until the End of Time” by one of my favorite authors, Danielle Steel. Her novels always moved me and brought me to tears. I loved it! 🙂

Oh, if only I could just read for a living… I share the same fantasy with Bo Sanchez.. to work as a guard of a lighthouse in an island accompanied by a gazillion books. And there would be food delivered to me… all I’d do is to read books from sunrise to sunset… hehe

Reviews: Sending Money to the Philippines Through Remitly

Buhay POFW… POFW for Parang OFW. Hehe..

Technically I am not an OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) – at least that’s what our company HR said. But since I’m a Filipino who’s temporarily working outside of the Philippines, then I am somewhat an OFW. I also checked the web for a definition of OFW:

Overseas Filipino Workers or OFWs are Filipinos working abroad that are expected to return permanently either upon the expiration of a work contract or upon retirement. – Wikipedia

As an OFW, I am expected to send money to the Philippines. I send money to my family (parents, brothers and sister) and also to my personal account to pay my bills/investments in the Philippines (Avida, Sunlife, Prulife, Citiseconline).

At first I was literally clueless. When I was in the Philippines, I usually sent money to my family in the province through BDO (thank God for their Cash Card program!), MLhuillier and Cebuana Lhuillier. It was always a hassle. You know, withdrawing money, going to the  other bank to deposit. Or worse, find a near *Lhuillier and line up to send money. The BDO option is more convenient. Although I have to withdraw money from BPI and deposit it to BDO. So in short, the process of sending money to my family was very time-consuming and inconvenient.

But now, here in the US, they’ve made (almost) everything very convenient for everyone. Almost everything is interconnected! With just a few clicks, I could send money from my bank here in the US to my bank in the Philippines! Cool!!!

How? Through Remitly.com. They are the middle men who work with both banks. I have done my own research about all the existing remittance services and so far most (if not all) of my Filipino friends are using Remitly. My friends said that they offer the highest conversion rate. Check them out for yourself now… 🙂