Personal blog of Edge Lacorte

How do you make other people remember you in a unique and stylish way? Part of marketing yourself to other people is keeping yourself in touch with them. Making sure that means to contact you are always open is like sealing a good and lasting relationship between you, your clients and your loved ones. The use of business cards is a great way of professionally marketing yourself and keeping yourself within reach to your clients and loved ones.

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What really makes a good boss? Does it take skills, or does it simply take guts?

in “calling all boss haters,” Greg Fish talks about how the many of our bosses nowadays are full of guts and air than skills and excellence. The article also talked about how people misjudge a strong person as someone who can be a leader.

A test that was done to gauge the competence of a number of managers showed that most of them are simply egotistic men who are overestimating themselves and not excellent workers that they present themselves to be. The test also showed that most people based their standards of leadership on how intimidating a person’s aura is and how talkative he is than what he can do and how well he can perform. The results even showed that the managers who underwent the test scored very low on the assessments compared to the employees themselves.

It is nice to know that despite the oceans that separate different nations in the world, people would always have a way of finding friends and lovers from the other side of the globe. Technology helps us to do this through long distance calling, voice over internet, and the most popular: social networking sites and chatrooms.

With social networking sites and chatrooms, you get to meet people from different races and places, know their interests and appreciate their culture and realize how diversity can bring two people so close to each other and create such a wonderful relationship. I have stumbled upon this very interesting website (Interracial Chat City) that lets us do just that. People from around the globe can meet in one place, chat and know each other, appreciate each other’s differences, and hopefully find good friends or the person they’d choose to spend their life with.

Interracial Chat City allows you to browse through all the members of the site and know who’s online and ready to chat with you. Registration is FREE. Just fill up a simple registration form and start chatting!

Just click on the link below and get started:
Interracial Chat Room

One of the pioneers in the Philippine Call Center Industry is PeopleSupport (now Aegis PeopleSupport). Many experienced agents, supervisors, managers or even support staff in various top, high-paying call center companies have their roots from PeopleSupport. This company should be a top choice for entry-level applicants or those looking for their first job/exposure in the call center industry.

The company presents good exposure to the in’s and out’s of a call center. Plus, given that this is one of the big names in the industry proves to be beneficial if you plan to transfer to Fortune 500 BPO companies in the Philippines.

Advantages:

The company has a great hiring process wherein you’ll immediately know if you passed or not, and it presents reasonable qualifications since it accepts college undergrads (at least 2nd yr college with no back subjects). The company also has a “people culture”, thus a friendly management. It also has a fun working environment wherein it conducts various activities like summer outing, xmas party and events like PS idol. As for the benefits, it has a good health coverage (maxicare platinum), and they try to avoid shifts starting at wee hours. For career growth, the company has an internal job posting process but of course career advancement will depend on the account and one’s skill set.

Disadvantages:

Anyone who have come from PeopleSupport would agree that it may have outstanding health care benefit, but one has to settle with a meager income. Compensation for new agents are only withinthe range of 13000 – 15000 Php with a total allowance of 1200 Php per month. The employee does not have leave entitlements while in probationary period, but is allowed to apply for unpaid leaves. Upon regularization, an employee is given leave entitlements (combined VL and SL) of 20 per year or 1.67 per month.  Annual salary increase is also not that big (there was a time when it was at an all-time low of 200 Php). PeopleSupport is definitely not a company for experienced agents who seek higher pay.

-Michael 1/15/2009

Disclaimer:

Any detail stated herein is solely based on the authors’ knowledge and information gathered from other people. Therefore, the authors do not guarantee the accuracy of the contents.

The United States elections is almost at hand, US presidential candidates are vying for the highest position in the United States of America and also as a supreme leader of the free world.  Surveys across America shows Democrat Barack Obama leading Republican John Mccain by about 52% vs 42%. With history’s longest and most costly US election campaign with a price tag estimated at $2 billion headed into the final stretch, with almost all indicators telling Barack Obama will win over John Mccain, one would ask, what is his background? Moreover, is he ready to lead the world’s lone superpower out of recession, wiping out terrorism and lessen if not eradicate poverty in the world’s most impoverished nations?

Here is a quick background about Democrat Senator Barack Obama:

Barack Hussein Obama II; born August 4, 1961, is the junior United States senator from Illinois. Obama is the first African American to be nominated by a major American political party for president. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate in January 2003. After a primary victory in March 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He was elected to the Senate in November 2004 with 70 percent of the vote.

With the United States under a financial turmoil and on the verge of an economic recession, Americans are closely observing Obama’s economic agenda which includes:

• Barack Obama will provide a tax cut for working families.
• Provide tax relief for small businesses and startups.
• Fight for fair trade.
• Invest in the Manufacturing Sector and Create 5 Million New Green Jobs.
• New Jobs Through National Infrastructure Investment.
• Technology, Innovation and Creating Jobs.
• Protect Homeownership and Crack Down on Mortgage Fraud.
• Address Predatory Credit Card Practices.

Also, Barack Obama introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 to provide a tax credit to companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US; maintain their corporate headquarters in America; pay decent wages; prepare workers for retirement; provide health insurance; and support employees who serve in the military.

Barack Obama might possibly be the future US President and if in case he does, he will be the first african-american born of a Kenyan father and was raised in Honolulu, Hawaii; Jakarta, Indonesia and mainland US to hold the highest position in the US government. Nevertheless as the world watches as history unfolds of who will become the next US president, may he lead the world to a brighter, peaceful and progressive future where poverty, hatred, terrorism and inequality has no place.

May God Bless Us All!

references taken from:

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/#jumpstart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_obama

As we look on to the news whether be it at print, television, radio or on the internet, we see how our currency lost its value versus the US dollar. Our currency is already one of Asia’s worst performing currency this year. Aside from that, we’ve also seen how our stock market fell into record-low levels. These are but few of the impending effects of the crisis to our country.

An average Filipino spends most of his income on basic needs which includes food, transportation, education, utilities, with a minimal amount spent on luxury items, not everyone is fortunate enough to have savings, that is why 95% of deposit accounts in the country are below 250000php. Thus, it is but logical to say that price increase of basic commodities would hurt our ailing domestic economy.

Given the fact that our local currency has weaken it will make imported items expensive like the valuable oil (notice that despite the low price of oil in the international market it did not have an immediate effect on local prices) and since petroleum products directly affects transport costs, it drives up prices of almost all commodities in the country resulting to record-high inflation.  Obviously imported products like cellphones, laptops, perfumes, clothes, etc., would also increase because of a weaker peso.

A weaker currency would also trigger foreign currency adjustments to our utility billings like electricity, telephone and water to name a few, which will again make our bills expensive. The main reason for this is that these companies have dollar denominated debts and it will be more expensive for them to pay for it if we have a weak peso.

With currency depreciation, we see how it affects our operating expenses. Now we go with jobs and earnings which most of us source our income. With the current fall of the stock market we have seen a huge outflow of overseas investment since they are going to a safer haven. Foreign Direct Investments are down compared to last year since most companies are on a wait and see attitude. The Philippines being an export driven economy would also be severely affected by a global recession starting in the US, UK and Singapore, since demand for those countries will definitely decline. If the events mentioned indeed happen and continue, they would cause several corporations to either reduce workforce or close factories in the country which would cost us our beloved jobs.

Given the possibility of such grim scenario, it is but saddening to witness that the only thing our government is doing is to assure the public that we can wither the storm and that we are resilient people that can emerge triumphant to any obstacle we face but with no apparent action.

For years, if not decades, the Filipino people has done everything he could for his country, I guess it is time for the Republic to do its part and perform its mandated duty to serve.

Scandals have really made a mark to the meaning of entertainment. Phones nowadays, from being simply a means of communication have become the medium of satisfaction for people’s sexual desire. Sex videos taken using a mobile phones are everywhere. Videos of celebrities, infamous hot couples having sex, or simply a guy or a girl trying to reach orgasm by himself/herself, or whatever a person is doing while naked.

Together with the hype of sex videos spreading, is the constant search for these videos on the internet. Keywords related to these things have been at the top of the list, especially for local searches in the Philippines.

So the reason why I’m doing this article is to verify how much traffic theese keywords can bring to my site. After posting this article, I’ll soon find out.

Here is a blog that started the blog tesing for these keywords, check it out: Selaplana.com.

Her transfer to ABS-CBN from GMA Network gave her what she wants – rest. She got a lot of rest and much less of money and popularity. From #1 on FHM’s sexiest women, she is now nowhere to be seen or heard. She has rested indeed. And I have a slight feeling that she’d be resting from work for a long period of time… longer than she is willing to spend for resting. Thanks to ABS-CBN.

Now, Marian Rivera and Katrina Halili has trampled her into obscurity. Poor girl.

She is set to star in another Thalia hit series, Maria Mercedes, for ABS-CBN. This obviously to try her on a Thalia role also and see if it will be a hit. We’ll see.

I Just finished reading a very interesting book by an author who’s just a year older than me. He is a student at the UP College of Medicine in UP Manila. I actually find the book amazing and I admired the author’s deep understanding of HIV-AIDS and how it can affect one’s life once infected. His elaboration of the scientific details of the HIV-AIDS while incorporating them in this heartbreaking story is really outstanding.
Orosa-Nakpil Malate is a gay themed story that revolves around a University of the Philippines Intarmed freshman by the name of John David “Dave” de Jesus who looked for fun but found love and life in the liberated world of Orosa-Nakpil streets in Malate, Manila. Dana, his Intarmed classmate and his bestfriend, served as his “fairy godmother” while he goes on his sexcapades in Malate. She kept him strong at and stayed at his side during his toughest times at school and in love and turned him from an innocent rural gay into an outgoing urban gay hottie.
In Orosa-Nakpil, Malate, he met not only the men who spent steamy nights with him in the dark room on the second floor of Barn bar, but also the men who changed his life forever.
The complexity of the story started from a high school rivalry between Dave and Michael that turned into a bitter revenge against the former. He fell in love with a guy, who turned out to be part of the big plan against him and broke his heart – big time. Another guy, who he thought he could trust, destroyed his dignity in the dark premises of a campus comfort room and was framed as the sinner – the unfaithful cock sucker.
Then he met Ross, the guy who made him fall in love like he never did. He never felt more special. But then, a painful event took them apart. Ross gave him a stethoscope before he bid goodbye. Dave then, slowly and surely but not completely, moved on and became successful in his studies. He graduated with flying colors and became a doctor.
Then an unexpected encounter presented shocking revelations to Dave that made everything clear to him. Why he was raped, why Ross left, why a hundred crumpled fliers containing libelous information flew towards Dave at the Barn bar 6 years ago, why Ross did something Dave never thought he could. He knew why – he knew that it was because of revenge, HIV-AIDS, and Ross’ incomparable love for Dave.
Orosa-Nakpil Malate, is a story of love, hate and hope; of family, friendship and rivalry, sending great awareness about HIV-AIDS, how brutal and merciless but life-changing it is, and most especially, how to prevent yourself from being infected.
I have never read a gay love story that is just so universal. The story itself is life-changing, it could change the way you look at your partner, and the way you look at life.

It is a MUST READ.
Available at National Bookstores and Powerbooks nationwide.