Sketches, Smetches

I've always been able to make a decent sketch of something, but as all unschooled sketchers (not the shoes, mind you), my drawings have always be askew, awry and a-missing the proper perspective.

Good thing I discovered Mark Kistler's You Can Draw in 30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less.

And yes, he's awesomely right when he says “drawing is a learned skill.”

There's some myth in the belief that you can't draw good if you're not born with the talent.

Of course, there are those who seem to have been born with their hand holding a pencil, able to sketch intricate, technically correct landscapes and portraits. I certainly had a classmate in grade school who seemed to have a knack of drawing faces and mixing colors attractibely. I remember he once drew a dog—which looked like how dogs looked like in real life—in kindergarten. Precocious, I tell you. Er, prodigious,  too.

Still, drawing is an acquired skill. Which is something Kistler capitalized on when he came up with his 30-day drawing tutorial.

I'm on Lesson 17 now, and I can truly say Mr. Kistler truly knows what he's doing with wannabe sketchers like me who just want to draw things that resembles something that really exists in real life, heh.

As you can see in the baseline pre-test, my sketching technique—and results—are elementary at best.

The Pre-Test. Elementary, my dear Watson. Very elementary.

How the Brain Works: The Secret to Staying on Top of Your Game [Video]

I'm a perennial student. Being gifted with a healthy dose of curiosity—especially on how things work—guarantees that I'm constantly learning new things. Lately though, I've been forgetting a lot of things, particularly specific words and phrases that describes whole concepts. So I got to thinking...

How can my mind forget something I've been doing or saying or writing or thinking for many years?

That question led me to this video on how the brain works. The target audience are students still in school, but because we're all students as long as we live, I think you'll find it helpful, too.

Video Takeaways:

How Your Brain Learns New Things

The human brain is about three pounds in weight, and can fit in the palm of your hand. Imagine that. Everything about you—in fact, a whole universe of knowledge—fits into an organ so small you can carry it in your purse. Talk about handy, unlimited hard disk drives wherever you go!

Top 9 Things You Can Do to Earn Money Online

When money is tight and the budget is short, us girls are great at finding other ways to augment our income. My mom repacked nuts and sold undies just to make ends meet when I was growing up just to feed three perpetually hungry little mouths. Others I knew took on a second job, usually after the day job was over.

Image credit stockimages/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In the 21st century, most of us have discovered the money-making potential of the Internet. Few of us though, don't know just how to transform the web into their very own money-making machine.

I've been working online since 2009, and I've already earned thousands of dollars from the endeavor. Not enough to make me filthy rich, because I enjoy lots of time off, but a tidy sum to pay for my monthly bills, savings for a rainy day, and a lot of wants.

For those who haven't yet tried it but are hoping to get their feet wet earning money online, here are some of the ways you can do it. These are just the top 12 ones that you can explore with a minimum of investment—often with just a laptop, great Internet connection, your skills, and the gray matter between your ears.

1. Develop websites for companies, stores and bloggers

For those with the technical know-how, designing and developing websites for online shops, company sites, web magazines and the like is a shoo-in for making money online. Most of the guys I know develop blogs and websites on Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress. Others use Adobe Business Catalyst, especially those who develop online storefronts.

A Day in the Life of a Special Assistant to a Cabinet Secretary (A Short Story)

What’s a normal day like being an Executive Assistant? That’s a question I always get asked by friends who’re fascinated with my previous job, working as Special Assistant to one of the country's more celebrated (and perhaps notorious) Cabinet Secretaries.

Warning: Long(er) Story Made A Tad Shorter

Following is how a routine day unfolds. I’ll have to tell you right off the gate that it’s a longish story.

Like I said, this one’s a typical day, but usually when we're busy. As special assistant and de facto Chief of Staff to a very busy presidential adviser, there are days when I’m cruising, and there are more days when I feel like I’m on a bumpy, small plane ride.

But it’s one life I’d never trade because (1) I learned a lot of stuff I wouldn’t have normally learned (of course), (2) I gained confidence in dealing with real life--and real live Big People, (3) I realized that powerful and powerless people are the same -- they all want happiness, and a better life for their loved ones, and (4) I can do anything I set my mind to...even seemingly impossible ones, it appears.

An Executive Assistant’s Day

Image credit: Witthaya Phonsawat/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

0630H, Thursday, Home

The iPhone on my night table rings, jarring the early-morning stillness of my darkened room. My eyes shut, I grope the table top for it and the stapled sheaf of papers it rests on.

“Hold your horses, darned it,” I speak into the phone as I sit up sluggishly on my bed.

“Good morning, Liz,” the sickeningly fresh, chirpy-crisp voice of my Boss’ close-in security blares into my ear. “Anything new from his sked?”

I open bleary eyes to look at the schedule printed on the paper I’m holding, though I already know it by heart...even five days following this one. “Just the emergency meeting of the Security Cluster at the Palace at 1530H, Music Room. They confirmed it at two this morning.”

I hear G groan. Another unscheduled stop. N’s security detail will be berating heavens and the Palace again. “Will you be there?”

“I don’t know, but he’s got stuff with me he has to deal with.” I briefly scan the surprisingly slow schedule on his column, the packed one on my own. “Any surprises on your end?”

Suob, Pinoy Folk Remedy

Filipinos have a long history of folk remedies like the village albularyo (a herbalist who also dealt with the paranormal), ventusa, herbal teas, and suob. They were handed to us from old medicine men who practiced the science and art of it at a time when modern medicine hasn't reached our shores -- or barrios (rural villages) -- yet.

Suob means to burn incense in Tagalog, and it's a folk remedy that helps speed up healing from influenza (trangkaso), fever, colds, and general body malaise. Hubby and I swear by it because, as kids, our parents added this to our post-flu recuperation therapy.

Ventusa, Cupping Therapy Pinoy Style

If there's one thing that I've always loved, it's a regular full body massage and ventusa.

Ventusa is a Filipino adaptation of the Chinese's cupping therapy. It's supposed to suck out bad qi and restore balance to your body. Pinoys use ventusa to take out all the lamig (cold) from the body to restore and rejuvenate.

What are Your Signature Top Strengths?

I'm a deeply reflective person. Although I can't say that I think long and hard about what I say or do before I open my mouth or do something, you'll always see me picking apart my words and actions afterwards to learn from them.

So most of the time I'm clear about my motivations. As a young kid who had to fight her schoolyard bullies, I learned the art of subtlety. You have to hide where you're coming from so they won't expect a strike...but you always have to know what moves you so you're always right with yourself. Kind of a scary thing for a kid to know, huh?

But I knew my strengths, and I played on them. Pretty soon, the bullies were leaving me alone. Besides, it helped that I had cousins and siblings who taught me how to give as good - or better - as I got, heh.

Sleep or Die (Infographic)

Ever since I could remember, I've had trouble sleeping. Perhaps, it had something to do with my nightly woes as a kid:

a. I had an alcoholic of an uncle growing up. Hmmm, that sounds wrong - most of my uncles on both parental divide were alcoholics. In fact, I had five uncles who died under the influence…plus a first cousin and my paternal grandfather.

But I digress… This uncle is Dad's second cousin. He was always drunk and when he's blotto, he's disturbing the peace to say it mildly. You know when he's smashed - he's daring anyone to come out of their homes and fight him. That is, him and his bolo - a large, sharply pointed, single-edged knife that was the Filipino warrior's (and revolutionary's) favorite weapon. When he's on a bender, he gets really scary.

A Filipino bolo. Image by Lorenzo Lasco

I slept with my grandparents and every single night that he's wrecked and hollering for a fight, I can remember my wee 6-year-old body quaking in extreme terror. Not the fact that we're safe home, that our bedroom door is locked and all the lights in our room - including all lamps and candles, I kid you not - are blazing, could take away the terror. It was like my mind was locked into a continued state of fright, that it was the end of the world, and I knew that if he yelled all night long I'll be dead by morning. I never felt safe…and it'd be morning by the time I could get to sleep.

I started sleeping well at night only when he died - he got run over by a bus during one of his nightly rages. (The agony I went through lasted for many years, I think.) My grandparents, I knew, sighed heaps of relief. In my kiddie mind, I can only thank God. I know, bad of me, but I was young and he was the terrorist of my life. His passing stopped the waking nightmare that I always had every day.

New Year's Resolutions, 2014

It's 2014!  Happy new year everyone!

And of course, at the start of every New Year, there's the ubiquitous New Year's Resolution. I know, I know…I'm not good at keeping them but I'm going to draw up a list nonetheless. Committing them to paper or, in this case, putting it up on the Net might serve as impetus for me to strive to keep some of them, at least.

This year though, I'm going to keep it short. Five items max then cut it up to bite size pieces. So here goes something…

1. Lose weight.

Getting to a healthy weight is the all-time favorite new year's resolution of perhaps every adult tipping the overweight scale. Sad to say, this has been on my To Do list since I turned 30. (I found out that when women gets to the Big Three Oh, our bodies are fully matured. That means the extra calories that we ignored in our 20s which fueled our growth are no longer needed…they're making a beeline for our waists, hips and thighs, ugh!)

27/365 - Work-at-Home Mascots

Creatives have their eccentricities and I'm definitely not exempted from it. The work-at-home writer in me is a lonely character - I only have my laptop, books and work table as companions throughout a long churn of countless articles for this or that client.

That gives me, I think, an excuse to be odd once in a while.

I've got this set of home office mascots who, I'd like to imagine, are always cheering me on and chanting, "You can! You can! You can!" when my mind's fried and there are still stuff to write.

There's Dana, after her namesake, who gave her to me before leaving for the States; Dax, a tooth fairy; and Dollar, an honest-to-goodness piggy bank.

From L to R: Dana, Dax and Dollar...mascots all.

11/365: Time for a Cool Change

One great advice that I picked up from a project management article talking about the Lean Startup: "Work smarter, not harder!"

So, today, I'm shifting my mindset: no more Ms. Goody Two Shoes...at least, about slogging things out and plodding along...and getting loose change for my efforts. :(

I'm working smarter - at least smarter than my clients without short-changing them - starting today. (Not tomorrow, mind!)

8/365: Indulging My Obsession

I'm a night owl. I write best when everyone's peacefully having their Zs. I suspect I have a sleeping disorder, but I don't wanna know.

After I've done my writing stuff I reward myself, of course. The best reward? A nice couple of hours watching Korean drama, particularly a lovely romcom. Very early this morning, I decided to re-watch "Delightful Girl Choon Hyang". I didn't notice the time passing so it was nigh morning when I decided to call it a night, er, day. If I were younger, I'd have done a marathon like I used to, heh.

Blessed be!

5/365 Shooting Work

Just a random shot of my work station when I'm in the kitchen. Our cooking area is a clean, well-lighted place, eh?

That bulky, heats-up-so-quick laptop is about five years old, but I lurv it. Why? Because it has earned me dollars already, from my online gigs.

And that digital camera? It's a Sony, which reminds me of my Spymeister. ;)

Blessed be!

Power Quote #4 - On Risks and Big Mistakes

There's one thing I've discovered about people who learned how to hard code HTML: they eventually develop an obsessive compulsive  behavior…or a propensity for it. Hours of hunting for open tags and bugs can do that to you. I really can't find fault in that. After all, you want your website to look good and run well.

I must confess to that OC tendency...after creating old school websites in the late 90s. One of the more undesirable consequences of that is being leery of changes - sometimes I just can't take a chance on a new way of doing stuff because I didn't want to rock the boat.

Power Quote #3

From John Wayne:

Courage is being scared to death, 

but saddling up anyway.

Power Quote #2

From Napoleon Hill:

A goal is a dream

with a deadline.

Power Quote #1

From William Shakespeare:

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good 

we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.

Don't Sit and Die. Use Workrave.

Several posts ago, I talked about how sitting for prolonged stretches can be the death of us desktop warriors. I forgot to mention that hitting at them keyboards for long stretches of time can--and often, will--lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. Now that isn't something you want to happen to you if your livelihood depended on your hands, believe me!

There's one free tool that I stumbled on a few weeks past that's designed to prevent (1) repetitive strain injury, and (2) croaking over your desk because you've been sitting an hour too long. It helps you take micro-breaks and longer rest breaks…and it tells you when your eight-hour workday (or your daily work limit) has ended.

Let me introduce to you…dun dun dun dun (drum roll)…Workrave.

It's a nifty tool for your Mac or PC and you can get it for free. (Praise God for good souls like the developers of Workrave.)

Workrave, like I said, has two kinds of breaks: the micro-break and the rest break.

Writing for Freight Broker Training – Top 3 Lessons in Business Blogging

I recently found a gig on oDesk writing for a freight broker training blog. It’s exciting work because (1) it feeds my thirst to learn, and (2) I’m discovering things about business blogging that I normally wouldn’t have if I’m just ghostwriting an ebook.

Writing an ebook is a one-off thing, so learning stuff will only be for a short period of time...unless you start liking the topic and you end up having a passion for it. Blogging, on the other hand, is more or less an on-going activity, so learning is also continuous.

image by trucktrend.com

Tooting My Horn

But first, since this is a portfolio blog, Imma gonna list down the recent articles I wrote for the blog:

Did You Know? Sitting Can Kill You

That is, sitting for long periods of time...which is a hazard of the business blogging occupation. At least, those who do it full time—8 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week. Like me.

A recent study from the University of Leicester says if you sit for long periods of time during the day—about 50-70%—you’re twice more likely to be at risk for diabetes, heart disease and death. The “most consistent” link though is between sitting and diabetes...maybe, because sitting—the hallmark of a sedentary lifestyle—leads to obesity, which is one of the risk factors for diabetes. Chilling findings, that.