How Many Spiders Does a Person Swallow in Their Sleep

June 29, 2008 · Posted in Mike's Blog · Comment 

987043_spider.jpgHere’s the myth:
You unknowingly swallow an average of four live spiders in your sleep each year.

And here’s the fact:
This very widespread urban legend has no basis in fact. It exists in various forms; another common version is that you swallow an average of 20 in your lifetime. (At 4 per year, that would make a very short lifetime of 5 years…) A correspondent in Pennsylvania had heard a version that involved swallowing a pound of spiders (while sleeping) in one’s lifetime. (That would be over 20,000 average spiders, for a lifetime of 5,000 years at the 4 per year rate).

For a sleeping person to swallow even one live spider would involve so many highly unlikely circumstances that for practical purposes we can rule out the possibility. No such case is on formal record anywhere in scientific or medical literature. Since this page first appeared, I have heard from one person who found a small harmless spider hiding in her ear (which is possible), another who claimed to have had one in her nose (but had no evidence that it wasn’t already in her hanky), and one who claimed that when she was a young child a spider leg was found by her lips. But not one person has claimed that a spider entered his or her mouth.

Source: www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/myths/whileyousleep.html



For sale: 444 Sq.m Residential Lot for only P600,000

June 28, 2008 · Posted in Mike's Blog · Comment 

Here’s a quick announcement.

For sale: 444 square-meter residential lot for only P600,000 located in Hulo Proper, Sapang Palay, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan. Has right of way and located one lot away from main road. If you’re interested, please text or call me at 09287840878.- Mike Lopez

Or you can post your inquiries as comments below.


Sibling Rivalry and How to Deal With It

June 23, 2008 · Posted in Mike's Blog · Comment 

I’m 31 and I have 3 kids, two lovely daughters Kei and Vhi and a son Jae. As a father, I see fights among the siblings almost everyday. Even Jae who is only 1 year and 6 months old already knows how to fight. Parenting experts say it’s normal and I agree. I however don’t think that parents should remain passive about it. We parents have an active role in making sure that these rivalries are in control.

Rivalries are said to be healthy in psychological terms. It also prepares the children for real life where lovely butterflies are killed for no reason at all. Whenever I see my kids fighting, I try to listen and see what they’re fighting about. If it’s something that they can handle for themselves then I step back and just watch. If I think fatherly intervention is needed then I tell them to stop and explain to them that they’re siblings and they will remain like that forever. In certain cases, I join the fight and make them laugh.

But what do you do when sibling rivalry gets out of control? Well, gladly I don’t have to deal with that yet and I’m doing my best to prevent that from happening. But what if it happens? I think I still know what to do. Having experienced family turmoils myself, I think I have enough experience to deal with it.

For you though who might need help, here’s another page I made which I think will be useful to you - Click here: Sibling Rivalry and How to Deal With It

It has three more articles in it that would be fun to read.

Cheers!


Can’t Log on to Unionbank’s Internet Banking, What’s Wrong?

June 21, 2008 · Posted in Mike's Blog · 3 Comments 

Update (June 24, 2008): Unionbank’s Internet Security department gave me a call regarding my concern. They told me that they’ve seen this post. They also told me that I need to re-enroll my internet banking account as they are making changes to the system. I followed their instructions but wasn’t able to complete the enrollment due to some weird problem when I try to complete my enrollment.

I gave them a call and told them about the error. Even the IT guy on the other end seems to be baffled with the error so he politely asked me to email him a few details about my account and myself and they’ll do the enrollment themselves. So I sent them an email and within 15 minutes I got a reply that I may now log on to their internet banking facility.

Guess what? It works! I gave them a couple of suggestions:

  • To put some information on the site about the problem. It always helps to let your customer know what’s going on even if something is wrong.
  • To fix the online enrollment facility.

To which they replied with “Noted Sir, Have a great day ahead…”

I’ll settle with that. I sure hope that they fix this really soon. Lots of EON users are probably affected with this problem and although EON is a “zero-maintaining balance” account, it does have its useful benefits.

Cheers to the guys at Unionbank. Keep up the good work!


(Original Post Follows)

I’ve been a Unionbank client for years and I honestly have no problems with them before until about a few months ago (until now). Problem is I can no longer log on to their internet banking service. Each time I login, I’m given an error saying that my Card Number or User ID is invalid.

thumb-unionbank-invalid.png

I recently replaced my card so I thought that might be the problem. I contacted them and visited my branch and asked about the problem and all they can tell me is that internet banking is currently offline and that they’re not sure when it will be up and working again. Now that’s some answer huh?

Today, I gave it one more try and I still got the same error. I clicked on the customer service link on their website and I was given two options. Call them or request for online support. I clicked on online support and this is what I got.

thumb-unionbank-contactunderconstruction5.png

They also have 3 other links where I might be able to post my concern. They are:

Guess what I got?

thumb-unionbank-contactunderconstruction1.png
Talk to our CEO, Justo A. Ortiz, Over a Cup of Coffee

thumb-unionbank-contactunderconstruction2.png
Meet our President, EVP, SVPs at the Executive Lounge

thumb-unionbank-contactunderconstruction3.png
Questions or opinions about the site? Call on The UBP Internet Team!

Just in case you didn’t notice, they all have the following in them…

thumb-unionbank-contactunderconstruction4.png

What the??? Even the UBP Internet Team is down. Worst, they can’t even format their “Under Construction” page properly! Notice how the text and the image gets cut off to the right.

C’mon Unionbank people? What kind of image are you projecting to your clients if even your “online customer support” is down? It’s as if you’re telling us that you don’t want to listen to our concerns anymore! If you can’t fix the internet banking facility then at least just put customer service back online.

And oh, please give us updates on what’s going on? When will we be able to use the internet banking facility again? Yeah, I don’t really have much in my account at the moment but that’s just because I can’t use it online. If you want me to go to the nearest branch then that’s about an hour of travel. That’s why I use internet banking.

So, please… fix it!


An Article that Makes Filipinos Proud

June 17, 2008 · Posted in Mike's Blog · 1 Comment 

I have Spanish blood flowing in my veins but I never feel proud telling people about that. Rather, I always feel proud telling them that I’m Filipino. Many have urged me to work abroad but I love my country so much that I choose to stay in the Philippines even though the salary is lower than what I would be getting if I worked abroad. I think many Filipinos share the same feeling. It is however the Filipinos abroad who make the world know how important we Filipinos we are.

I was given notice by Yahoo Messenger of an article in Arab News and upon reading it, I felt even prouder. The article entitled “Imagine a world without Filipinos” speaks about how an Arab businessman closed his business when the Filipinos that worked for him chose to leave. “When they left, I felt as if I had lost my arms. I was so sad that I lost my appetite,” he said. To cope up for his loss, he flew over to Manila to look for Filipinos who would be willing to work for him.

I think we Filipinos are a strong driving force in the economy of this world but let us not be lofty about that. After all, we Filipinos are known for our “humble” ways.

Mabuhay ang Filipinos!!!


Busby SEO Challenge - 3 sites are better than 1

June 14, 2008 · Posted in Mike's Blog · Comment 

It’s been said that 2 heads are better than 1 but please allow me to tweak this little saying a little bit. For the Busby SEO Challenge, I’d say 3 sites are better than 1. While this also translates to 3 times the work and 3 times the mistake this also means that I will be able to test my methods in 3 different ways.

I know it’d be stupid to be proud with my sites as I’m a newbie plus the fact that I’m making these sites a more open target to any form of blackhat attack from the competitors but well, I think I’ll continue anyway and just hope that I won’t be popular enough for any such attacks.

My Busby SEO Challenge sites are:

All three sites are maintained by myself though it may look like it’s not. Well, that’s what I call creative writing. Hehe. Each of these sites use a few common methods which I think will help but of course each of them will differ in other methods so as not to put all my eggs in one basket - after all, I only have two eggs. :)

I hope I win… who knows, I may even get all three prizes. :)


Joining the Busby SEO Challenge

June 12, 2008 · Posted in Mike's Blog · 1 Comment 

It’s late but I’m still joining. I heard about this contest about more than a week ago and since I’m not really interested in contests like this I didn’t give it any attention. Today however, something changed in my mood. Somehow this contest got into me that I immediately took steps in joining it - something that I don’t really do normally.

The first prize is $5000 and maybe that’s why I got so excited about it. In fact I got too excited that I entered domains into the contest without thinking then deleted some then added some more then deleted some and so on. It wasn’t long before I got an email from the admins giving me a warning. LOL. I explained my excitement and they were kind enough to understand.

So there you go… wish me luck and I hope I win.


No to Racism

June 8, 2008 · Posted in Mike's Blog · Comment 

I’m pasting below a story that has been posted on my Facebook Super Wall by a friend. The story claims to be a true story but I didn’t verify it. Nonetheless, it’s a good story to read especially if you’re against racism. Here it goes…

The following scene took place on a BA flight between Johannesburg and London . This is a true story.

A White woman, about 50 years old, was seated next to a Black man. Obviously disturbed by this, she called the air Hostess. “Madam, what is the matter,” the Hostess asked. “You obviously do not see it then?” she responded. “You placed me next to a Black man. I do not agree to sit next to someone from such a repugnant group. Give me an alternative seat.” “Be calm please, the Hostess replied. “Almost all the seats on this flight are taken. I will go to see if another seat is available.”

The Hostess went away and came back a few minutes later. “Madam, just as I thought, there are no other available seats in Economy class. I spoke to the Captain and he informed me that there are also no seats in the Business class. All the same, we still have one seat in First class.” Before the woman could reply, the Hostess continued: “It is unusual for our company to permit someone from Economy class to sit in First class. However, given the circumstances, the Captain feels that it would be scandalous to make someone sit next to someone so disgusting.”

She turned to the Black man and said, “Therefore, Sir, if you would like to, please collect your hand luggage, a seat awaits you in First class.” At that moment, the other passengers who were shocked by what they had just witnessed stood up and applauded.

The actual message requests that the story be sent to others but instead of doing that, I just decided to post it here instead.

I am a Filipino and we have had our share of racism in the past and some are still experiencing this awful treatment even to this date. Even though I have Spanish blood in me, I never thought of Filipinos or any race for that matter as either inferior or superior to others. I think we are all the same no matter what race we are.


Good luck to The Busby SEO Challenge