This was a free introduction to the Membership Site Program by Jojy Azurin, an 8-week course that costs $995. At first I was a bit hesitant because of the prize (even if they promised a 50% discount to the first batch) but my brother convinced me to try it out anyway. The worst thing that could happen was to bore myself to death for three hours. Besides, it could be an opportunity to meet new people and possibly build networks.

Another thing that convinced me to go was this short clip of Jojy talking about his membership site, BusinessSummaries.com. The business idea was so simple yet something effective. Finally, I suddenly had flashbacks of my brother actually writing for BusinessSummaries.com a couple of years back. So, unintentionally, that gave it some sort of emotional ties to me.

So off I went with an open-mind and ready to listen to new ideas… and I thought I was going to regret it. The individual introductions was just a sleeper. I mean it was nice to listen to each participant introduce themselves and learn about their backgrounds, plans, aspirations and all that, but having each participant introduce ourselves was just a little too dragging. Then again, this was understandable since they had only expected 10-15 participants but more than 25 came.

Luckily, it was all uphill from then on. Jojy was absolutely right in saying that we should take down notes because we would probably go through information overload. The presentation materials were wonderful, showing us lots of real-life samples which really allowed us to identify with the ideas. Of course, it was not all show as he provided us with some valuable insights as well.

Here are some that interested me:

• The Best Product to Sell is Information
• Don’t just think Pinoy. Think Global!
• There are so many types of Information that can be sold
  • I have the list but I decided not to post them here.
  • Feel free to attend his seminar if you want to learn about them
• Validate Your Idea (it’s easy using the marketing tools available on the Internet)
• Write a Business Plan
  • This is an old idea but how he said it somehow struck me
• You need to wear the marketing hat
• There are a couple more practical tips that he mentions about creating membership sites.
  • Although come to think of it, those tips are also applicable to others websites, be it a “usual” site or an e-commerce site.

At the end of the session, I was pretty much convinced about joining the program (besides, they had a nice refund policy ). Unfortunately, all 15 slots (yes, only 15) were taken.

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This does not mean that I will stop and simply wait till the next batch. I will try my best to work with what I have learned from the introduction and just fill-in the  blanks along the way.

No, I was not lazy nor was I too busy to exercise and was actually ready to start the progress test. Unfortunately, I got a sore back from a basketball scrimmage and just could not do any more push-ups.

Anyway, I am not really calling this a total failure as I was able to achieve my main objective, i.e. have a form of regular exercise. I will continue to play ball every week (scrimmages with colleagues and our weekly tournament games in the ABL) and will also continue to do regular push ups. This time, I will do daily push-ups of at least 80 (not continuous though)… soon, I hope the momentum will continue and I will start doing cardio exercises.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2010. That’s about 4 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 12 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 132 posts. There were 14 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 517kb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was October 14th with 101 views. The most popular post that day was Respect The Game.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, ifreestores.com, twitter.com, isecureloan.com, and icreditcard.biz.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for how to make blog interesting, man boobs, how to make a blog interesting, how to make an interesting blog, and visual mathematician.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Respect The Game October 2010
1 comment

How to make your blog interesting? April 2007
13 comments and 2 Likes on WordPress.com

Failure as a leader July 2006
6 comments

Review: Apartment 1B January 2008
2 comments

My Lists April 2007
1 comment

Obviously, it is tough for me physically. Try doing 250+ lbs (my current body weight) bench presses and you’ll know what I’m talking about The good thing about  the programme though was that it was designed to allow participants to work through their own phase.

Progress tests allow you to see where you are at physically, and follow a path that suits your level. This ensures that you are at a safe level (avoiding injuries and whatnots from overfatigue) and motivated. Forcing you to follow a strict programme (no. of reps) will definitely lower your morale if you are unable to reach them.

Apart from the physical challenge, the more difficult challenge lies within one’s self. Discipline and the determination to finish what I started comes into play here. Many a nights, I wanted to just plop down on the bed and snore away. Thankfully, I was able to suck it up and now, was able to get this far.

I know I’m not even half-way there… but I’m just so glad that I was able to breeze through the first two weeks. I just hope I am able to keep my focus on the goal.

One of the most talked about restaurant lately is Wee Nam Kee at the Ayala Triangle (see posts from Didi and Anton)  so we headed for it. Yet, at 2:30pm, we still had to be placed in a waiting list. 6th on the list in fact. I guess, they are really that popular.

The dining experience was a little sub par as we felt that the waiters and waitresses were not properly trained. Also, there were a lot of dishes that were on the menu but not available, such as.

• Pork Asado
• Dumpling Soup
• Cereal Prawn
  • this was actually recommended by the waitress, but then we were told that it was not available
• Marmite Pork Ribs
  • this was recommended by the owner but was never brought to our table

The good thing about the service though was that the owner was more hands-on than the usual. Maybe because the place is relatively new… or maybe because he knew that his staff was not ready yet.

Anyway, enough about that and let’s talk about the food. Here’s what we ordered:

According to the waitress, the Steamed Chicken is the restaurant’s best seller. I am not really a fan of steamed chicken (I like mine fried) but this one was pretty good. Way better than the rest that I have tried before.

Steamed Chicken

The Wee Nam Kee fried rice was OK. Nothing spectacular or extraordinary about it. It did not have a lot of ingredients like the fried rice in North Park or Hong Kong Master Cook (in Dampa), and the serving size was disappointing.

Wee Nam Kee

I first thought that the Sweet and Spicy Chicken was a bad choice because it felt a little too sticky and gooey. However, it tasted really good and had the right amount of flavour and spicyness, for the rest of my companions at least coz I would prefer it to be more spicy.

Sweet and Spicy Thai Kitchen

This was also good but it was a little too dry. Yes, this is under the Dry Noodles section of the menu but I would still prefer a little more sauce on it.

HK Style Birthday Noodles

I liked this one although mom said that it did not really taste like any Oyster Sauce was used. She thinks that they simply used lots of corn starch for it.

KangKong in Oyster Sauce

So, as far as the food goes, Wan Nam Kee certainly lived up to the hype for me. Then again, as my brother would say, “You eat everything!” so don’t take my word for it and try it out.

This is actually the second time that I tried to take on this challenge, but that first try was a total failure. Although that was a preparation for an important event, there really was nothing “forcing” me to complete the challenge apart from my (well, Alaine’s) desire to make me look thinner on our wedding day.

This time around, there is a bigger reason behind this challenge. I am starting to feel the burden of my overweight frame on an aging body and I do not like the feeling at all. Not only that, there were some findings in my latest medical which kinda worried me.

I really am hoping that I will be able to stay with the program and become healthier… and hey, maybe shed a few pounds along the way.

This time around, I had two of my team members lead the activity. The funny thing was, they chose the same activity that I was thinking about, an activity that I learned from our bunso in SkySolvers (Navitaire), Rona.

It was simply called “2 Facts and a Lie.” You write down 3 things about yourself, 2 facts and a lie. Here are my entries:

* I had my first girlfriend at the age of 27
* I used to date a girl who is now one of Indonesia’s pop-stars (or is it RnB)
* I danced Filipino Folk Dance in front of the Indonesian First Lady

Can you guess which one is the lie? All of my teammates got it wrong!

Update: I can’t believe people actually believe #2. Hahaha. She was a close friend but I never dated her. I wanted to but… oh well. Don’t worry, Alaine knows about her.

Although I believe that traveling should always be in this list as it helps us increase our horizon, and I am pleased to note that I will get to check off two more of those places, it seemed so shallow to only have travel on my list. So, I promised myself that I will update this list before this month ends with items beyond travelling.

Soon enough, in the last quarter, the pressure got on the players on the hard court. Words or,as we call it, trash talk were exchanged. From exchanging words, it turned a little more physical and ugly. Tough D was mistaken for rough play and soon, tempers flew and so did elbows… from which whistles blew and technical fouls were given.

Unfortunately, this lead to the fifth fouls to one of our opposing players, their second top-scorer. It didn’t matter though as their top scorer was just scoring at will and was able to keep the game close. However, with a couple of minutes left, another whistle blew and their top-scorer was out of the game.

Our fans roared and so did our players… but it was a little bitter-sweet for me. I wanted to win, and this sudden turn of events really increased our chances, but I did not want the easy way out. It made me doubt if we really deserved to win this..

But, when the final buzzer sounded, it was then that I realized that we were worthy of it and we truly deserved it… To be more precise, it was then that I realized that our opponents were NOT worth of it and did NOT deserve to win. You see, the majority of the opponents refused to exchange pleasantries after the game. I even tried to go up to one of them (if the Celtic’s had Big Baby Davis, this team had Cry Baby Davis) in the locker room and he refused to take my hand shake. What a Wuss!

I have never seen such display of unsportsmanlike conduct. And it was certainly a shock for me to see it from a group of individuals who are supposed to share the common core values of Integrity and One Global Network.  It makes me wonder if there are more of these sore losers out there. If there are, I would seriously re-assess if this is an activity worth having.

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Some might question why someone, who cusses at his players and talks trash to opposing players, would have the nerve to write about sportsmanship. My only response is, “Yes, I am passionate and I get crazy during the games… but once that final buzzer rings, I respect the game enough to respect my opponents.”