The winner of a spanking new iPad 32gb 3G and wi-fi is…. NOT ME

Congratulations to Pehpot!

It was fun doing this giveaway because I got to know the different internet connectivity of friends. Several of those who answered are real-life friends who are noob in joining contests. I won’t name them but in my heart I am grateful they were willing to step our of their comfort zone and do this for me. Thank you.

Thank you all to those who joined.

Wait, there’s more… I will be doing something for you guys soon, just lemme finish whatever I need to finish so everything is well taken cared off.

For now, I need to focus my energy in accomplishing a lot for something I should have prepared a long time ago and that means getting a new pair of footwear to replace the easy spirit sneakers.

I have been listening to the radio a while ago and the guest, a doctor, was talking about “Serotonin as the Happy Hormone” and setting limits on happiness. (Post was started on October 12. The rest of the article below this written only today)

Serotonin is said to be the happy hormone that helps to regulate moods, relieve depression and anxiety. It also helps you have a regular sleep pattern, among other things.

Food rich in trytophan help increase serotonin production in the body. Some of these food are: different kinds of cheeses (Swiss, cottage, provolone), bananas, yogurt, soybeans and soy products and seafood like tuna, clams and oysters.

Egg white, cheddar cheese, pork chops, lamb and potatoes on the other hand help you increase trytophan intake.

Anyway, back to the subject of happiness and setting limits, I agree and disagree with the speaker about setting limits on happiness.

When we set limits on happiness, we tend to be more comfortable with what we have and have no real nor immediate desire to have “things” just so we can be happy. There’s more to living a simple life than working too hard and too much to get that expensive bag or a car that’s not within the budget and not necessarily a need at the moment, are two examples I can give for this.

Sure, we may feel complacent if we don’t work harder to be able to afford little comforts (like those ann gish bed linens for your home’s beds) and luxuries (a cuppa of your favorite coffee) but if these wants are the end-all and be-all of what we work for, I don’t think we would be happy nor content at all.

On the other hand, why would we set limits on happiness based on these worldly things? There are so many things we can get our happiness pills from: being with family (of course, this is a source of great stress too), doing a stop-and-smell-the-roses actions, doing random acts of kindness and just being content and not wanting for more than you can bite are just a few suggestions.

One more thing, alcohol and excess caffeine interferes with your body’s ability to produce serotonin. So, there goes your “Happy Hour”

I have a Cisco Linksys E4200 router giveaway contest here. Should I get the most number of respondents for the survey questions, I will raffle off that PhP9,000 worth router. I will also get to win a gadget when that happens, so woot!

On the other hand…

A “lucky” reader also gets the chance to win a gift pack from Johnson’s Baby World of Firsts here by just writing a caption referring to the first photo in the post.

So many contest to join online and I’m sure there are a lot of happy winners out there and that includes me, yey!

Giveaways have included mobile phones, laptops, hewlett packard toner cartridges, food, gift certificates, beauty products and even webhosting packages.

In fact, there was that “heated” talk a while back if a certain government agency should ask bloggers to pay for a business permit of something like it when they hold online contests and host giveaways even if respondents did not purchase anything to qualify. I won’t get into that since I rarely host giveaways.

These online contests range from high priced prizes to fab and fun ones. There are of course the issues about “professional online contest joiners”. Hmmmm… intriguing so I will not delve into that.

Anyway… continue reading this entry »

We didn’t have a router before but the techie hubby tinkered with my laptop and made it the “router” where everyone can connect to the internet. This gave me a bit of a headache because there are times when I myself can’t connect whereas they are still connected through me. So I had to wait for them (all other three of them) to logout just so I can restart my laptop. Argh! isn’t it?

Anyway…

Now this all changed because we now have a Cisco LinkSys E1000 Wireless-N Router with Parental Control settings, thanks to Mommy Mundo and Cisco.

What is Linksys E1000 Wireless-N Router with Parental Control all about?

The LinkSys E1000 Wireless-N router package consists of:

1. Power cable

2. Quick installation guide

3. CD for installing the router and its settings

4. LAN/Ethernet cable

5. LinkSys E1000 Wireless-N Router

The LinkSys E1000 Wireless-N Router work can be easily installed and here’s a step-by-step instruction (please click on the photo to see a bigger resolution):

After inserting the CD, you need to

Set the parental control with the different gadgets you have in your home. You can set the time for the internet access to be made unnavigable to the gadgets you choose. Keywords can also be set for more parental control.

Personalize the settings according to what you feel should be for your family/home use:

Set the password and if you plan to stick to your settings, do not share the passwords with the children

This is what the page will look like when your internet is blocked:

More Photos here.

You can win a Cisco LinkSys E4200 Wireless-N Router with Parental Control by answering the survey questions below.

Specifications:

• Simultaneous Dual-Band N (2.4 & 5 GHz)
• Gigabit Ethernet 4-port switch
• Maximum speed up to 300 + 450 Mbps
• USB port for shared storage
• Built-In UPnP AV media server

If you want to win the Cisco Linksys E4200 Wireless Router worth almost P9,000 by just answering these questions:

• Just answer the survey questions in the comment section below from October 17 – October 24 and you get a chance to win that wonderful router.
• Write your full name and email address so I can contact you just in case I get the most number of respondents and get the chance to raffle off this device (please see below)
• You should have an NCR address (a relative’s or a friend’s NCR home address would do!) where the Cisco Linksys E4200 will be delivered by Mommy Mundo if you win

Please help spread this contest because if I get the most number of respondents to the survey,  I get the chance to raffle this off to the lucky respondent* and I also win a gadget! Woohoo! Come on, let’s help each other

*There are 10 9 other mommy bloggers hosting this giveaway.

Let’s all help each other by spreading this good news.

Thank you all!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

I got an email from Mommy Mundo yesterday and there is good news and bad news:

Bad news: if you posted response in any of the 10 participating mommy bloggers, you don’t increase your chances of winning because they will count the first comment as the valid one. So, if you answered my survey questions after you answered another blog’s, that comment counts as the other participating blog’s point. Buhuhuhu for me.

a) Readers may post only once and only in ONE (1) participating blog. Duplicate responses are not allowed. Only the survey response posted earlier will be counted.

but wait there’s more from Mommy Mundo:

Now to make things even more exciting, Mommy Mundo is also giving away a Linkys E4200 Router (worth P8,995)! So if you want to double your chances of winning, simply:

1) Join the CISCO LINKSYS Router BLOG CONTEST by following the mechanics above.
2) Leave a comment on this post along with your name and email address.
The winner of Mommy Mundo’s own Cisco giveaway will be announced on Oct. 28 as well!

Reminder: Only those who have commented/answered the survey in any of the 10 participating mom blogs can win in this Mommy Mundo giveaway so make sure to read the instructions very well! If the same winner is drawn for Mommy Mundo’s giveaway as for the Blog Contest, another name will be drawn for the prize.

The Millennium Run for Women’s Health is happening on November 6, 2011 at the McKinley Park.

Bravehearts and the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society (POGS) will be having Millenium Run for Women’s Health, a fundraising event to that aims to increase awareness on women’s health issues. The registration fees Millenium Run for Women’s Health will help fund the many women’s health projects of POGS. Pregnancy-related deaths, breast cancer and cervical cancer issues are where these pledges will go to.

In the Philippines, over 4,500 Filipinas die of childbirth, around 8,000 die from breast cancer while around 4,380 die from cervical cancer. These numbers are higher compared to other countries in our region.

Among the many causes that doctors see are poverty, lack of awareness about maternal health and lack of support from the government.

The last part being my opinion, so yes, I say YES TO RH BILL.

The Millennium Run for Women’s Health supports the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) which aims to lower mortality rates by the year 2015. POGS targets to improve maternal health in the Philippines.

There are several categories for the run: 3k, 5k and 10k. <- click that for a bigger photo.

Millennium Run for Women’s Health is organized by Run For Change. Click here for more details.

Bravehearts also support The Tour of Hope which raises fund for the purchase of cervical cancer vaccines for the women in far-flung areas in the Philippines.

Christmas is just around the corner and I’m sure a lot of moms have started their shopping at this time of the month. For those who have limited budget and are on the look out for personal gifts/giveaways, I suggest digital scrapbooking.

I am fond of doing these wonderful digital scrapbook pages online and offline. I was able to publish several of these simple scrapbook pages in this blog:  sunflowers here, a dandelion here, Chocolate Hills in Bohol, my son’s birthday and another sunflower here.

I did all the above pages offline because I was able to download embellishments and papers a few years ago. I use Adobe Photoshop to put these together. Not really difficult but not too easy too since I don’t think I have it in me the creativity in putting on the pages what I have in mind,

You want to try digital scrapbooking to give as gifts for Christmas? Here is a free digital scrapbooking site for you. You can also make these as invitations, notepads and stationery. just create and print the pages!

I say this is more fun than just Facebook-ing. Enjoy creating beautiful pages and memories to savor!

Hmmm… this gave me an idea to try this with my students!