Thematic Photographic 26: "Sweet" v 1.0 - Earth's Natural Sweetness

This is my first entry to Carmi's Thematic Photographic series. For this week, the theme is SWEET. But instead of posting something sugar coated food that we normally eat, I thought it would be better to go on the more natural side of sweetness.

Nectar is the natural food of bees and hummingbirds. The bees use them to make honey. Honey that we harness and use for our pancakes and pastries.

Maybe we too should indulge in some natural sweeteners, especially during these holidays, so we can share some authentic sweetness for each other...that is coming from the heart.

If you want to see more entries about Thematic Photographic, visit Carmi's website at Written, Inc.

Wordless Wednesday: Fishing

This entry is for the Tuesday and Wednesday Editions of:

wordless wednesday

Financing College Education

Just yesterday, my colleague told me that he was trying to sell his pick-up truck for 8 grand(USD). I joked with a chuckle, asking why the rush, was it tuition time again? Surprisingly he nodded in confirmation. The university where his daughter was taking college has trimestral period.

I remember when we were back in college. Some of my classmates, coming from the provinces, have to avail of student loans just to enroll or at times just to make both ends of their allowance meet.

Sometimes its difficult being a student, although majority of us were lucky to be well provided for. There are some who have to find work or, as I've mentioned, furnish a student loan to finance their education.

Although, looking at their predicament in another light, there is an advantage for them experiencing that. They learn early on how to value money and prioritize their spending. Especially nowadays where that the cost of college education is too high even in state universities. Taking up a student loan can be an early training for the future executives and entrepreneurs on how to handle money.

As we used to call it in college, its education beyond the four corners of the classroom.

Are you being tracked?

Twice in a row, I heard about GPS tracking today. First with the movie "Wild Hogs" when they threw away their GPS equipped phones for an adventure filled bike ride across America. Then, the second in the movie "DaVinci Code", where Professor Langdon was bugged by a GPS tracking dot by the French Agents to track his movement.

GPS tracking or better known as Global Positioning System is becoming a common technology nowadays. It used to be available only for military use but now civilians too can take advantage of its usefulness. If you have a GPS receiver, triangulating your position anywhere in the world, using around 24-32 mid altitude satellites around the globe, can be available within seconds. The only places where it can have a harder time locating you would be if you are driving through a tunnel, or even when you are driving in between high rise buildings. The signals gets choppy.

With the GPS tracking being available in the market (its a common feature now of the 3G mobile phones), depending on how you use it, it can be good or it can be bad. Good for finding location, or tracking down your cargo. But if you use it to spy on your spouse or employee...somehow it can breed distrust.

Technology should be used to make our lives better...always depending on how we make use of technology.

You've Got Mail

The last time I was in South Korea, I snapped a picture of this post box. In the Philippines, this is not a common site. Whenever, we have to send a letter or parcel for shipment, it would be sent through the post office. But since the birth of email, I can't remember the last time I visited a post office.

Back at work, for communicating with our customers, we make use of newsletters and send them by direct mail. Still, the way we have sent them was through a contracted courier which handles the shipment faster than snail mail. For a time we saw that process effective. Until the current economic conditions shocked a lot of businesses. Suddenly, all efforts were geared towards reducing cost while trying to maintain the effectiveness of each operation.

After a lot of brain storming, the idea of using direct email marketing came in. Instructions were distributed through out our team to get the email addresses of each client and prospects. We took advantage of trade shows and product presentations to generate the basic data base we needed for the direct mail.

If you are looking for a web site that does such function and can even be used as a survey tool for clients and increase your marketing information. There is the iContact Email Marketing. An easy to use email marketing, surveying, autoresponder, and blogging tool that allows small businesses, non-profits, and associations to easily communicate online with their customers, prospects, and members.

You can try a 15 day free trial of iContact at www.icontact.com.

As they say, information is power. How fast you get that information through and back from the target clients will make all the difference.

Parked for Duty

Just like the pair of shoes that was left in front of the door step, that is how I see how my blog has been for the last twelve (12) days. Parked and left alone.

I could easily justify that my schedules did not permit me to upload. Besides, WI-FI connection has also been a challenge the last few days in the field. But sometimes, when the moment of choice comes, you need to do what is more important. No excuses. Just priorities.

Like what Stephen Covey used to say "First things first"