NU6_Winnie Constantino, LPC Regis

1). Call and deliver: Grocery store – In Lipa City, Batangas, I have not seen any stores that customers may call to order grocery items then to home/office delivery.   It would be convenient for customers if there would be such stores where they can call landline/mobile number or log on to their website where they can shop grocery items. The store will deliver their purchases right at their doorsteps. They can just set the minimum order and customers may prefer to use credit card through wireless credit card terminal. It would be a big help for those busy people that has no time to visit supermarket. 3 2) Improvement in SM supermarket - Most of the time especially during holidays, the lines in the payment counters in the supermarket are very long.  As an improvement, it would be better if there would be waiting area like lounges (with chairs, TV or magazines). Shoppers will be given designated numbers while waiting. Their number will be called if it is their turn to pay already.  In this way, customer especially senior citizens or those with kids will have a comfortable time waiting.  3 3) Drive thru – coffee shops – In Lipa City, there are 4 major coffee shops, Starbucks, Coffee bean, Figaro and Café de Lipa. As an improvement with their services, they can offer 'drive thru' service. Customers may opt to buy coffee or snacks through this service especially those customers who are in a hurry, does not want to leave their cars and when parking slots are full. This additional service adds value to their customers.  4 Thank you so much!

NU6 Idea 7 by PC AGSB LPC

For the first time after a long time, I took the bus going to Manila so I can catch my flight to Dumaguete that will fly out of NAIA Terminal 2. It was such a big hassle! I boarded the bus in Balagtas Terminal in Batangas City and got of in Magallanes. Of course there were a bunch of taxicabs waiting to take their prey. They were charging me 350 pesos to bring me to the airport! Since I was not willing to pay for such a sum of money, I hoisted the three big bags that I was bringing and walked up the overpass to go to the other side of Magallanes where there was more automobile traffic. The best deal I got was 200 pesos. Since I was already running late, I took the bait.
This got me thinking again (and airports/airport services are my favorite topics of late), why don't buses (both provincial and metro Manila lines) have a "Biyaheng Airport"? I think the general public will greatly benefit from the convenience that will be brought about by this. Of course the trips will be rationalized because it doesn't make sense to have Airport bound buses plying the roads by the hour. This is a great substitute for a train going ton the airport which is what most countries have (e.g. Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia). And because buses are not available at all hours, people can plan to arrive in the airport earlier than usual which is great for airport-based businesses (restaurants, coffee shops, massage parlors) because people will spend longer times in NAIA, they are bound to get hungry,grow thirsty or become stressed while there hence they will head to the establishments around NAIA. Needless to say, the said establishments will have to be improved but this is another topic on its own.
The bus can be privately or government-operated - it doesn't really matter, as long as the convenience is there! Maybe as a dry run, the trips will just be inbound trips to the airport. If the scheme proves to be logistically manageable and financially feasible, the operator can then expand to include outbound trips to certain city centers (e.g. Ayala Avenue, San Miguel Avenue, Malate etc.).

Sent from my iPad

You are correct.  How I wish that could be done.  But there are buses that pass at EDSA that pass through NAIA 2 via MOA (it takes about an hour?)  You could be a DOTC consultant on airports.

NU6 Idea 6 by PC AGSB LPC, the photographer as Event Mnager

An industry that is reaping a lot of cash nowadays is the wedding industry: photographers, videographers, florists, caterers, couturiers and a whole throng more. People love to spend and plan for weddings because these are joyous affairs and bring together friends and family. At the center of this all is the wedding planner, tasked to bring together the aforementioned industry players as well as the church, the venue and whatnot. Wedding planners charge generous fees for their services and make a good living out of putting things together.
It struck me, would people actually spend for someone to plan a somber and sad affair such as a funeral or memorial service? Will people actually see the benefit of having somebody who is not wrought with grief to be able to put things together during a time of bereavement? Hence comes the idea of a bereavement/interment/ memorial planner (I think calling it a "funeral planner is too morbid). Here are a couple of services that this kind of planner can offer:
-Arrangement with florist
-Arrangement of wake (i.e. Chapel, at home) and making the venue ready
-Arrangement with caterers (for the wake and for the funeral itself)
-Arrangement with funeral parlor (choosing, picking up of casket, hearse, etc.) or crematorium (choosing urns)
-Arrangement for church, memorial park, services of priest/minister
-Liaise with memorial plan provider if applicable
-Sending out of thank you notes
All of these, the bereavement planner can mobilize...all the client has to do is pay.
At first, I felt a bit off with this idea but after much thought, I think that not having to worry about logistics and details during a time of sadness is something that people may actually pay a premium for, once the general market can get over the morbidity of the said services. Like everything else, it can be done in good taste. Who knows, this may be an industry that will take off sometime in the future.

Sent from my iPad

PC no grade yet.  I published it while in BKK

NU 6 by HJA, LPC Reg New Fashion and New Mindset

NU 6 New Fashion and New Mindset

Last Saturday, I had to go to one of the malls in Manila to buy a shirt specifically based on the requirements of my son. He has given me the particulars like the color, size and design of the shirt he needed for his school presentation. Well, I did spend the better part of the day trying to find the right shirt for my son but as I checked on the shirts being sold at the mall and even before I could finally find the right match, I had realized how the designs of T- shirts/ polo shirts and other apparel nowadays have been influenced or inspired by the Filipino spirit.

Emblems depicting the Filipino character like the Filipino flag colors, the Philippine map, the yellow ribbon and other unique Filipino symbolisms have flooded the market. These clothing companies like the Collezione, the Francis M. Clothing Company, and even our very own Manny Pacquiao have capitalized in this new sense of fashion statement among Filipinos. It is remarkable in a sense that these clothing lines have never been that marketable in the past. I remember a certain company that manufactured the so-called Pidro shirts, a clothing company used to be managed by Danny Javier, one of the three members of the famed "Apo Hiking Society". Well, it enjoyed a brief level of popularity until its brilliance faded gradually and lost its appeal.

This new surge of Filipino nationalism is indeed quite remarkable. Fashion could be a great vehicle of a people's sense of expression and through fashion people are able to bring out their inner feelings as well as their sentiments. Two things are very positive in this development, first, more Filipinos are becoming more supportive of the local brands which is possibly a good indicator that Filipinos today are more proud of who we really are. In the past, many of us  have been brain-washed with the idea that foreign products were much better than those that were locally produced; and who could forget the term "stateside mentality" coined to describe this mindset of most Filipinos in the 70'and 80s.  As I write this NU, I couldn't help but remember several presidents of the country who have even made this their flagship programs like the "Buy Filipino" slogan of Pres. Corazon Aquino. These political efforts were all aimed at trying to create a more confident, a more convinced public that what they are buying is indeed proudly Philippine made and is at par with world class standards.

The other important aspect of this new trend is that it serves as a source of national pride. In a country like ours, that is hounded by problems left and right both natural and man-made, it is necessary that the people have something where they can draw their strength and inspiration from. Perhaps, the many years of struggle for national development coupled with the yearning for better governance and enough of corruption-laden politics has influenced this new mindset. The good thing about it is that people now are being made more aware of their roots, of their country and of their true identity. There exists the feeling of national consciousness as one wears a shirt with a Philippine emblem or symbol. One is being reminded that the simple design printed on the shirt is a manifestation of love, loyalty and affection to the country. More importantly it is a symbol that lacks the indifference that for so long has engulfed our minds especially the Youth. Now more than ever, everyone is made to believe that they can be a part of the solution or they are aware of the problem at the very least – Ako ang SIMULA.

Wearing these shirts may indeed be a strong indication that the people are not just into plain fashion, it is more of a statement borne out of their unique sense of love for the country and their being Filipino; something badly needed these hard times. And so before I handed this shirt to my son, I decided to explain to him without being too dramatic why he should be proud to be a Filipino. 3 Proud to be Pinoy

NU6 (Idea #6) by TTL, LPC Reg

THE NEW ME (Part 2)

By: TTL

It has been more than a month since I wrote my 1^st idea of NU6: The New Me. The idea was to reduce my body mass index (BMI) to 24.3 kg/m² by December 13, 2011. My Body Mass Index (BMI) last October 31, 2011 was 26.4 kg/m² (calculated by dividing my weight, 85.4 kg with the squared of my height, 1.80 m) and considered as OVERWEIGHT based on the standard weight status categories associated with BMI ranges for adults shown in the following table.

BMI	Weight Status
Below 18.5	Underweight
18.5 – 24.9	Normal
25.0 – 29.9	Overweight
30.0 and above	Obese

Since October 31, 2011 and up to present, I have decided to change my lifestyle by doing the following:

Ø  Exercise every morning and afternoon

·         Treadmill/Stationary biking for 30 minutes

·         250 Sit-ups

Ø  Low-carbohydrate / high-protein diet

Ø  Active lifestyle (Using the stairs instead of elevator, frequent walking, etc.)

Ø  Daily weight monitoring

After 2½ months of religiously implementing the above activities, my BMI as of January 14, 2012 is 24.0 kg/m² (equivalent to 7.6 kg weight loss) which exceeds my target BMI (24.3 kg/m²).

The challenge now is how to maintain my BMI. I have this new idea of engaging more to physical activities to keep up my BMI such as (a) play badminton, (b) play bowling and (c) join fun run. I plan to do these activities every Monday afternoon after office hours (except fun run) together with my officemates. My officemates decided also to normalize and maintain their BMI after I shared the success of this program.

It is always great to be physically healthy and influencing other people to do the same just by sharing the success I have earned that it all started with an idea coupled with self-discipline, right attitude and focus.

The greatest wealth is health. 3.5

NU6 4 Assignment PC of AGSB LPC "Fine With Alkaline"

I spent the better half of 2011 feeling paranoid about health issues.  It does not help that I have family history of gastro-intestinal cancers so when I first started feeling queasy even hours after eating, bloated even after eating a small snack, and having acid reflux before bedtime, I became worried.  I prayed for the symptoms to go away but they seemed to get worse as the months passed (I started feeling them in May).  Of course the Internet did not help because after googling my symptoms, I became even more freaked out.  Finally, I decided that if I wanted to find out what's wrong with me, I better do it soon – and before the holidays.  Otherwise, I would spend Christmas feeling miserable.

I finally summoned the courage to have both my upper and lower gastro-intestinal tracts examined on the first weekend of December at the Asian Hospital.  The good thing with these tests is that you don't have to wait for days for the results.  As soon as I woke up from being sedated, I found out that nothing is seriously wrong with me and that I have gastritis.  Surprise, surprise!  Looking back, I realized that my coffee and soda consumption for 2011 have been on an all-time high.

During one of my frantic searches on the Internet, I came across what they call as Alkaline Diet.   Apparently, cancers tend to develop in acidic bodies and acidic bodies are a result of an acidic diet.  And guess what, most of the food that people (including myself) love to eat is "acidic" food.  Here's a checklist of what a typical day is for me in terms of food intake.  Foods are categorized into Extremely Alkaline, Alkaline Forming,  Moderately Alkaline, Slightly Alkaline, Neutral, Moderately Acidic and Extremely Acidic.

http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/acid_alkaline_foods_list.html

Breakfast:	PH Rating
Coffee	Extremely Acidic
Butter Toast	Moderately Acidic
Cereal	Extremely Acidic
Lunch:
Coke Zero	Extremely Acidic
Rice	Moderately Acidic
Chicken/Pork/Beef	Moderately/Extremely Acidic
Chocolate bar	Extremely Acidic
Snacks:
Coke Zero	Extremely Acidic
Cookie	Moderately Acidic
Dinner:
Fruit Juice	Alkaline Forming
Bread	Moderately Acidic

Note to self:  Meats are ALL acidic.  Chicken and Pork are moderately acidic while Beef and Fish are extremely acidic. Sigh. 

Looking at what a typical day for me is was such an eye-opener.  Only 1 out of the 11 food/beverage I take in is alkaline.  The rest are acidic.  If I want to have a healthier body and live longer, and hopefully,  avoid diet-induced cancers, I have to do something about what I eat.  Aside from being more prone to cancer, a highly acidic diet can often lead to fatigue, heartburn, bloating, belching, insomnia, migraines, and even halitosis.

After the scare I had in 2011, I made a resolution to eat healthier in 2012 – and this starts by infusing Alkaline foods into my daily diet.  A healthy diet in this context does not necessarily mean just fruits and vegetables – as many fruits and vegetables are also acid forming,  but a diet that is more PH balanced, or better yet, leaning towards the Alkaline side.  The diet below consists of 8 alkaline foods out of 11, way more than the 1/11 previously.

Breakfast:	PH Rating
Green Tea	Slightly Alkaline
Butter Toast	Moderately Acidic
Banana	Moderately Alkaline
Lunch:
Green Tea	Slightly Alkaline
Rice	Moderately Acidic
Chicken	Moderately Acidic
Apple	Moderately Alkaline
Snacks:
Fruit Juice	Alkaline Forming
Baked Potato	Moderately Alkaline
Dinner:
Fruit Juice	Alkaline Forming
Green Salad	Moderately Alkaline

It will be hard to give up acidic foods completely (like bread or chicken) but the  diet I came up with above looks do-able to me.  Also, if there are days when I can't help but break my diet, I can always drink up lots of water since it is a very good neutralizer. 

I don't want to spend 2012 obsessing about my health like I did in 2011 so I better stick to the new dietary program that I made for myself.  Also, if you can notice, the main difference with this new diet is that there are a lot more greens and fruits and less carbs and meat.  This also means that I'd probably also lose weight as a bonus!4

NU6 by TTL, LPC Reg

THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

By: TTL

The true meaning of Christmas is love. John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him." The true meaning of Christmas is the celebration of this incredible act of love.

Our team, the Research and Development (R&D) department of Ginebra San Miguel, Inc. (GSMI) consisting of seventeen (17) highly qualified, trained, competent and proficient chemists, chemical engineers and food technologists with me as the team leader/manager wants to experience and feel that Christmas is really the time to love and share God's blessings. We want to try something new from the usual attending of Christmas parties, exchanging gifts, giving "aguinaldos" to all our "inaanaks", etc this Christmas season. This led me to an idea to help and bring smiles to the victims of typhoon Pedring at Barangay Cuyab, San Pedro, Laguna. The victims are still at a basketball court and can't return to their houses due to flood in their barangay.

The team decided to raise donations both in cash and in kind. Solicitation letters were prepared and distributed to GSMI and ex-GSMI personnel. Team R&D conducted Christmas caroling at Barangay Lorenzo, Santa Rosa, Laguna last Dec 22 to raise additional funds. R&D team has been studying chorale singing after office hours once a week since October 2011 as part of  managing our stress and building unity and trust in relationships among the members of the R&D team while working.

As of the time I am writing this article, team R&D has produced the following donations:

Ø  Cash – PhP 8,800.00

Ø  Kind – 2 sacks x 45kg of rice, 100 pcs of monay bread, 1 big casserole of arroz caldo (good for 50 families), 100 sachets of powdered juice, used clothes and shoes

We have a meeting today and the group has just decided to go to San Pedro, Laguna on Jan 23 to give the following package per family:

Ø    2 kg of rice	Ø    1 bar of bath soap
Ø    3 pieces of noodles	Ø    2 sachets of toothpaste
Ø    2 cans of sardines	Ø    1 pair of slippers
Ø    3 sachets of powdered milk	Ø    Used clothes/shoes

Before giving the individual package, team R&D will facilitate simple games for the kids with prizes for the winners. Merienda (arroz caldo and monay bread) will be served to the families during the program.

Team R&D will be conducting this new activity, a first for the last 17 years, not just to bring smile and uplift the spirits of the needy but most especially to nourish our souls and rekindle our spirits this Christmas season. It's our way of giving back the blessings we received the simplest and sincerest means we can…the true meaning of Christmas for the R&D team.3

NU 6 of NU 6 - IV, , LPC Hairstyling Software

NU 6 of NU 6

New Salon Service: To see is to Believe!

"Ma'am/Sir, this hairstyle suits you!" this is a common affirmation in a salon. Have you ever experienced a haircut that looks terrific in a magazine and the stylist seconded that the hairstyle suits you but at the end of the day you definitely wanted your hair back? Well, I experienced that a lot before.

Editing pictures is so easy nowadays. You can have your face attached in a celebrity's body, change your eye color, remove makeup in seconds, and the most amazing part is you can change hairstyle in just one click.

This means that with the technology we have today, it is very possible to have a computer or any other gadget in a salon that will enable the customer to have a preview on how she or he can look like with the new hairstyle. You can mix and match hundreds or thousands of hairstyles uploaded in a database. The salon will definitely have additional income through this service.

Suggested procedure:

1. Since this is a new service, the salon personnel should invite his or her customer to avail this,
2. If the customer would want this service, there should be a camera connected to the gadget to capture the customer's face,
3. After cropping the face, the customer will choose from the given categories. Examples are: styles for long hair, short hair, curly hair, straight hair, etc.
4. After choosing, it is time to pick one from the hairstyles included in the selected category,
5. It is time to paste the customer's captured and cropped face into the selected hairstyle,
6. The customer may repeat the steps if still not satisfied with the hairstyle, and
7. Possible options may be to print, or to save the edited picture preview with an additional fee.

It is also possible to have software built by a developer so that it is more personalized as to what the salon would want to offer to its customers. It is a simple capture, crop, pick, and paste procedure. In the end, no more I-WANT-MY-HAIR-BACK scenarios! 4

NU 5 of NU 6- IV, LPC, Deactivation of Stolen CP

Cellular Phone Snatching No More!

Year 2011 is a memorable year for me. Not just because of happy moments but also because of disappointing scenarios. How many of us experienced cell phone snatching? I am pretty sure, many of us. Last June 2011, I lost my Samsung Corby, not so expensive but is so valuable to me. I left it in our counter table in our Internet Café. After 2-3 minutes, it was gone!

Mobile or cellular phone can be snatched from any person, anywhere and at any time where the snatcher is sure of his success and has a safe passage to escape. The people most vulnerable to cell phone snatching are those who travel alone in car, motorbike riders and pedestrians on the streets or in the busy markets. People generally don't dare to resist with the cell phone snatcher for fear of being killed by him and give up easily. This goes in favor of the snatchers as such the crime of cell phone snatching is spreading rapidly. So far the police have not been able to prevent this crime, which is their primary responsibility. Similarly the government has also not paid any attention to this menace. The citizens have therefore started feeling insecure while carrying their cell phone. (http://ausaf.org/article_30.htm)

I happened to read an article on how to make cellphone snatching unprofitable (http://mobilityph.blogspot.com/2007/03/making-cellphone-snatching-unprofitable.html). According to the article, the owner can report his stolen phone to the National Telecommunications Commission. The NTC will just ask to formally file with them an affidavit of loss stating there the serial number and model of the phone and other relevant information. By doing this, the NTC can block the signal of the cellphone even if the sim is replaced rendering the phone useless to any "subsequent possessor".

Last week, my friend asked me to accompany her to the market to have her cell phone fixed. I was shocked because I saw the personnel of that unauthorized repair shop removed a certain "part" of an old cell phone and replaced it on my friend's broken cell phone. This gave me an idea that the old cell phone, where the personnel got the part, may be stolen. This means that even if the owner would have had the signal blocked by NTC, cell phone snatching may still be profitable via selling its useful parts.

I suggest that cell phone manufacturers should have a certain option (maybe a press-button will do) for the buyers to have their cell phones deactivated if were snatched. Totally shut down meaning each part will be useless but of course if given back to the owner, it also has the option to be revived. This will definitely lessen incidents of cell phone snatching. < IV, the parts of a CP are generic;  they could not be deactivated.  Pls ask Gil) 3

NU6 3 by PC, AGSB LPC Reg "Taking Off The Accountant's Hat"

> I am an accountant by profession. However, gone are the days when traditional accounting jobs like month-end closing, accruals, allocations, and accounts payable are the most value-adding functions of an accountant. Today in Shell, the mechanical bits of accounting are all off-shored to the shared service centers. Hence, the accounting jobs on-shore have become less in number and have evolved into what is called Finance in the Business. Becoming FiB involves a change of mindset and this has become more apparent to me when I joined Shell's Supply business as integrated margin advisor. As IMA, I had to understand how an oil refinery works from a technical standpoint. For example, if last year someone had asked me to draw a simple schematic of a semi-complex refinery like Tabangao, I wouldn't know where to start. Today, I will be able to converse with a chemical engineer and draw a simple flow of hydrocarbon from the de-salter, crude distiller, thermal cracker, hydro de-sulfurizer, sulfur recovery and ultimately to the tanks. I know what are the streams that come out of the reformer and I know what are the specs for octane, Reid vapor pressure, sulfur, viscosity and p-value for products. And for me to learn all these, I had to take off my accountant's hat and put on the hat of a geek who's amazed by science and hungry to learn new things. I stepped out of my comfortable corner and started asking questions that are non-accounting in nature but whose answers would otherwise help me understand the business that I support even more. And how does this help me in my job? Firstly, when the technical people begin to rattle off in a language that does not seem to be English, I will not feel lost. I will in a better position to clarify, complement, and at times, even challenge the decisions that the business will make albeit from a finance standpoint. In short, I will not sound stupid to the people that I work with. Knowing what is going on is also important because almost anything has an impact to the company's books and if an accountant's nose is stuck in the books, he will be ill-prepared to anticipate these impacts and to advise the business accordingly.
> The course that I went to last week, Refinery and Supply Economics, further opened my eyes even more about the fundamental differences between how an accountant thinks and how a refinery economist thinks. For example, if someone asks an accountant how much money is saved by a new heat exchanger that will reduce energy consumption by 2 tsrf (tons standard refinery fuel), the most likely response would be calculated from the production cost of refinery fuel (i.e. $/ton cost of crude x % refinery fuel per ton of intake + $/ton energy cost to process crude). This answer would be incorrect from an economic standpoint. The right one would then be first to know what is inside the refinery fuel pool. If the fuel pool contains imported natural gas, residue, cracked fuel oil and fuel gas, which one would you first "back out"? An economist would then say, the material with the highest value would be the first one backed out since that would save the refinery most money. Second question would be, what is the value of each of the 4 materials in your fuel pool? This question can be answered by knowing what is the alternative outlet of the materials. Will they be blended off into the low-sulfur fuel oil pool? Will they be sold in-land at import parity prices? Or is there no in-land demand and thus any extra tons would have to be exported at a discount? As one can see, refinery economics is not very straightforward but it is very interesting and forces an accountant like me to think in a different manner. Moving into a finance role that is so closely-tied to the business is indeed a big challenge for me. However, the challenges are not insurmountable, provided that one is open to new ways working, new ways of thinking and new ways of looking at what's happening around him. And that's exactly the new attitude that I am going to bring with me to the new and exciting year ahead. Now after reading this, tell me if it felt like you are reading something that an accountant has written. If yes, then I still have my work cut out for me. If not, then at least I've already had a good start! 4
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> Sent from my iPad