What can I say, it looks like I really am lucky when it comes to raffle contests. Although I don’t always win the grand prize, I still manage to win in the major prizes, if not the consolation prizes. Take for example Kongregate’s Weekly Loot Challenge. I played the Achilles game and earned a raffle ticket by doing 60 kills on Survival mode. Then when I checked my email this morning, I found out that I was one of the 9 winners of Fallout 3 game! I do wish they ship to the Philippines though. If not, I’ll still be entitled to receive the cash equivalent of the game’s actual retail value. Click here for the forum discussion at Kong. :)

Ever since I saw this on YouTube, I’ve been humming “Never Gonna Give You Up” non-stop. This happened last Aug. 1 when Rick Astley visited Manila for a one night concert. Although people kept calling him a one-hit wonder, he never was for the Filipinos. He had a lot of hits here back in the 80’s (I can still sing parts of “Together Forever”, “It Would Take a Strong Strong Man”, and “Cry for Help” if you ask me too!). I suspect this is partly due to Roderick Paulate singing Rick Astley’s songs whenever he makes guest appearances in variety shows on TV and also on his very own show with Carmi Martin, “Tonight with Dick and Carmi”. I salute Roderick for giving in to the request of the Filipino multitude! (If you want to find out how this all came about, click here)

Now, as much as I like Rick Astley and his songs, I was glad to have my LSS (last-song-syndrome) replaced yesterday with a song by Diana Krall, which I heard on the radio on the way home from work. I didn’t know the title of the song so I researched about it today and found out that the original version was recorded in 1974 by Tom Waits. Here’s The Heart of Saturday Night:

Lyrics | Diana Krall - The heart of saturday night lyrics

I bet you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to these past two weeks. You won’t believe it but I got my self coded as a Manulife agent. What does this mean? This means that after training for two weeks and passing my licensure exams from the Insurance Commission, I can now offer financial planning services to anyone who might be interested in planning a secure financial future for themselves and their loved ones on the areas of family protection, savings, education and retirement. I’m really excited about this new development in my life because I’ve always been interested in personal finance and investing and by being a Financial Security Adviser, I can now share this passion to every one who is willing to meet with me for a financial planning interview. In fact, I met with my former classmate from elementary last night and I was able to enlighten her on the benefits of having insurance protection. Imagine, she already has an insurance policy but she didn’t realize its importance until last night (her agent must not have been good, I dare say)! Tonight, I’m meeting again with a former colleague and tomorrow, with a former classmate from high school. Right now, I have a lot of prospects but once my contact list runs out, I’ll be doomed. That’s why I must not forget to ask for referrals from the people I meet. And also, a little self-promotion does not hurt. (more…)

I can’t believe it took me more than a year to start working on my “To-Enroll-In” list. Well, better late than never, I say. Just this month, I enrolled in Cardio Hiphop and Bachata dance classes at Studio 116, together with my officemates. Cardio Hiphop is at Tuesdays and Bachata on Wednesdays so that’s a total of 8 dance sessions for this month. We started last week and we found it really enjoyable. Although I found myself wishing I was more fit so I didn’t have to stop every now and then to catch my breath and drink some water. (more…)

Here’s another great money-earning tool I found on the internet. It’s called Homepages Friends and just like Gomez Peer, it allows me to earn while doing what I usually do on the internet. With Homepages Friends, I earn every time I do a search on my Homepage, as well as on the searches done by friends on their Homepage. Setup is as easy as 1-2-3: 1) Sign-up, 2) Set your homepage, 3) Set your search box. (more…)

The Mustang parts we ordered finally arrived. They came in two balikbayan boxes, which my brother immediately opened to sort out the contents. He divided them into several piles, by function, in order to find out if all items were complete. It turned out that there were three small parts missing but other than that, all items in the list were accounted for. (more…)