School Time

June is fast approaching and it is time again to send my little kid to school. I have been able to get her to the next grade level without putting her on a public school. My main concern right now is getting her all the supplies that she needed for school, the books, the uniform and of course, the bag. For this, I need to be active in finding a good-paying freelance jobs again.

She was hounding me the whole week; she is excited in having all the school supplies at her hand and the new bag that she will be having. She is too excited in learning new lesson and meeting her classmates once more.

Technology Transfer Universities

I am hoping that my alma mater will consider having this: the school where I have gained my degree is focused on offering educational services rather than putting up an intensive research department. Although my alma mater is recognized as one of the best schools up north of the country, it does not yet offer such technology transfer services that can benefit in various practical uses.

I found one university technology transfer in Israel which has an impressive website to boost their presence. Yissum technology transfer showcases various technology innovations. Their 40-year duration has gained them 400 technology licenses which made them a constant source of successful commercial products. This university, which is part of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, had also helped in the start of new companies like Mobileye and Novagali.

In our country I think we do not have very progressive technology transfer at par with Yissum. We have UP Los Banos actively conducting a rice research institute. However, our country is still far from making moves in promoting this kind of research. I cannot see more programs that puts focus on improving technology. I just see more and more schools erected, but the talents of our professors is simply confined to classroom teaching - without a room for expanding their minds on discovering useful new things.

Passive Income Ventures

I was not interested in passive income ventures before - not until I searched for ways on how to make myself wealthy. It was not easy, but it involves change of mindset. I was a person before who always complain about my salary and how low it was. I always lived from month to month, finding myself short of cash a few days before the most awaited payday.

I tried to find answers why some people are financially successful. I discovered that they are into things that majority of the Filipinos are not aware of - businesses, stocks, bonds, UITFs and mutual funds. I became interested more in UITFs: interestingly, many bankers are not very much oriented on these kinds of investments.

I am planning to put the extras of my freelancing programming job on these passive ventures, so that I could earn even while sleeping.

High Paying Medical Jobs in the US

Nursing is the hottest job that is aspired by many Filipinos today. If you ask a typical Filipino little kid on what they want to be when they grow up, most of them answer that they like to become nurses. A successful Filipino nurse in the US gets to have high paying salaries in a good hospital.

Interestingly, their sons and daughters also choose to pursue medical careers just like their immigrant parents did. A good site for them to look for is Medical Career Training where one can easily find medical courses from the leading universities across the US.

Even less famous professions is made easier with this site. For instance, to be an ultrasound technician, he has to understand what the job is like. Medical Career Training gives an overview of that job with the list of ultrasound schools that are arranged per state. This makes finding good sonography schools a less tedious task.

Success Begins - One Step at a Time

Today I made another personal success: getting recognized in my freelancing community through my blog.

I got into a guest posting on another blog because he liked my personal views on my blog. He happened to be the man behind that freelance site and I really appreciate the attention that I got from him. I was able to compose that blog - it was a long one - then submitted it to him for review. I was happy I was able to read it the next day.

I guess this is a new personal success for me.  I hope there will be others. I have to sustain my work in order to reach my goal - a successful freelancer who never runs out of projects to do.

Barcode Printers in My Previous Job

As I was looking around to learn on how to program in barcode, I happen to see an interesting bar coding printer posted in Barcode Discount site. I believe everyone is familiar with the bar code systems that are widely used in stores for paying items over the counter. My previous job also exposed me to these bar coding systems which is heavily used in industrial companies for tracking products as these are manufactured as well as keep a robust data collection for quality control.

One interesting product in Barcode Discount site is the ZM400-2001-0000T barcode printer which is one of Zebra’s ZM400 printer perfect for heavy duty bar code work. It is a heavy duty printing machine that seems to be “overqualified” for use in a checkout counter. If I happen to still hold on to my previous job, then I would recommend the use of this barcode printer to replace the broken existing ones because it seems to be durable for all-year round manufacturing operation.

Of course, Barcode Discount site is not limited to this product. There are more barcode scanners and printers that are offered on the site to suit a variety of functions.

The Need to be Loved

Despite the fact that I have a daughter that puts happiness to my single parent life… my thoughts often wander to my need to be loved by a very special someone for the rest of my life.

I guess this is why humankind has always formed families in many different societies. The guy meets a girl, then courtship happens and if the couple is meant to be for each other - then union happens - solemnized with a marriage.

This was not the case for me when I gave myself to the father of my kid. There was no marriage. We made love under the moon and stars and we were blessed with life. But as young lovers we realized that we were not meant to be - our immaturity has separated us.

Years had passed since then. I think he has moved on and probably found another girl to be with for the rest of his life.

I have also moved on, focused on my career and met interesting guys despite having a love child. I have not settled down with a single guy that I really like. I soon found myself surrounded with guys that I really like but are already committed for a lifetime with their wives.

And sometimes I really long for someone who will listen to my deepest problems, thoughts and desires… and simply cuddle me and say that everything is going to be fine - which something that a friend could not often give.

Growing Concern for Identity Theft

I have read some true identity theft stories and I am beginning to realize that the identity theft crimes that I see in the movies actually happen in reality. In the US, it is a growing crime. Once that a person is hit with this crime, the poor victim struggles from having to pay bills that he or she has never benefited in the first place - and in many cases, the bills goes on even after the criminal has already been caught.

Our country, it is not far from possible that a identity theft crime can happen, as more and more younger individuals can easily access the internet through their neighborhood internet cafe. I have already heard it through the national news that there are some individuals already whose bank accounts are siphoned out by some unscrupulous individuals.

Have you thought of something that will safeguard you from this growing high-tech crime?

Fortunately, LifeLock is available to offer the kind of protection that you will need. If you really want to try out their service, then go for their lifelock promotion code so that you can try their service for free for the first 30 days and pay a lot less after the free period. If you go for the annual payment plan, then you can save as much as $21.00 off their regular price - if you happen to be an adult.

The service is available to the US. I just wish that LifeLock is able to extend their superb service to other countries such as ours. I hope they can make it here in the Philippines just before more crooks get to learn the ropes of this crime.

Computing the Cost of Living

How much do I need to make it out successfully as a freelancer?

I have pondered on this lately because I felt the need to establish an income baseline. For the lower middle-class lifestyle that I choose, I have tried to put an estimate on my monthly income and expenses. This does not consider the current economic problem in our country on the continuous rising cost of fuel and commodities.

My expenses run to as much as P15,000 (US $375) per month, so it is still safe for me to say that the baseline should not fall under this value. This value does not even fund my wants and does not consider paying monthly amortizations for a house and a car.

If I were to get even a simple house and a second had car, my income should shoot up to P25,000 (US $625) to pay for the monthly amortizations.

I was thinking that as a single parent, life can very difficult for me compared to those with traditional family setup of a dad, a mom and one or two kids. In particular, these traditional families with both parents working are able to pool up their income and get their simple houses and second hand car.

The single parent does not, particularly those like me whose children solely depend on my income without the financial support other partner (or spouse or ex-husband).

New Online Backup Storage for Mac

Good news to Mac users! The world-famous IDrive offers encrypted online backup drive for this platform. If you prefer the free service then you can get as much as 2GB. If you plan to backup more than this quantity, then go for the IDrive for Mac Pro for only $4.95 per month - if you happen to be a personal user. However, if you happen to be a business entity, then there are three options that you can choose from: 50 GB, 100 GB and 500 GB worth $9.95, $19.95 and 49.95 per month respectively.

This online backup services operates by incremental backup - which means your precious file system is simply checked for new and modified files and backed up on this online drive which conserves a lot of bandwidth. The backup transmission is also very secure because it uses 128-SSL security - as secure as the leading browsers in the market - so you do not compromise security as you put your very important files into their servers. You can even configure backup schedules so that you have less to worry about. Thus, even if you suddenly find yourself in a rut, then data loss is not much of a problem anymore because you can simply retrieve files off from their server.

I think an online storage is a good option to consider aside from other medium of backup. I never got myself into religiously backing up my system with a series of CDs on my lap. I always find it time consuming and I always doze off in the middle of a backup session. I have plans of getting a faster connection in the next few months, so having IDrive might be better off for me because I do not have to worry much about having to do this baby sitting session with my computer.