One (1) Year into Blogging

It's been one year since I started blogging and I've written more than a hundred posts and got more than 8,000 views. Wow, I can't believe I've gone this far :). I don't get to write more often lately but I plan to write 1-2 posts every month to keep my blog going. Happy Monday!

Photo Thief Victim on Instagram

Last week I found out that one of my followers on Instagram had stolen three of my photos. My Instagram is not private, so everyone is free to follow my IG.  I usually follow back a new follower if I like his or her photo gallery. I didn't follow back this follower. I don't even know if he/she is a male or female. This follower keeps on liking my photos every time I post new photos. I got curious so I checked his IG profile. I was surprised to see 3 of my photos in his gallery. He/She took a screenshot of my photos and he/she posted the pictures in his/her gallery. Really bad!. All the other photos are obviously stolen from the internet and maybe from other IGers as well.  I blocked and reported this photo thief to Instagram. I also posted the  stolen photos on IG Photo Thief Magazine and reported to @C0nscience.  This photo thief is still active on Instagram and has more than 1000 followers. If you chance upon my blog and you happen to have an Instagram account, better block and report this photo thief.  Username is RABAB_JAWELI.

These are the photos that were stolen from me. The pictures were badly cropped, I can even see the lower portion of my profile picture.

http://instagram.com/glo_gee

My Love for Instagram

I have not posted  here for a month because I got addicted to Instagram, haha! Writing is not really my passion. Photography is my passion. I just love taking pictures. That's the reason why I decided to revive my IG account. I created my Instagram account 8-9 months ago, but I'm not active because I don't have followers. I revived my IG account and joined the iHeart faces photo challenge for the month of March to keep me going, but I was not able to complete the photo challenge. I couldn't keep up with the daily challenge due to busy schedule. When the Cherry blossoms and tulips started to bloom the first week of April, I started posting pics again, just for fun.  Then I noticed that my number of followers started to grow and more and more IGers are liking my photos. I gained 400 followers in one month. Unbelievable! And then, four of my photos were featured on different categories this month. Wow, I'm loving IG :)) !! Now the challenge is for me to continue improving my photography skills to keep up with the expectations of my followers.

Here are  some of my featured photos.

My yellow tulips shot was included in this feature by Yellowmazing. 

My Iwakuni bridge shot was featured by Instalove_it.

My pink tulips shot was included in the April blooms weekly feature by IG_Philippines.

My pink tulips shot was included in this feature by FlowerStalking.

Lesson of Time: Karma

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" - Matthew 7:12

Karma is one of the main laws of the universe. Karma is the universe’s way of keeping our world, and the people of our world, in balance and in harmony.  A common saying for the law of karma is ‘what goes around comes around’.  

photo source: google images

To my previous officemate (Trace Trajano) who betrayed not only me, but also our other officemates whom you convinced to invest our hard earned money in your realty business, then  you suddenly disappeared without a trace after getting thousands of dollars from us, watch out for your own karma. The money that you took from us will not make you any richer after what you have done to us. What goes around, comes around. You did something bad to us, so expect bad things to come back to you. Maybe not now, not tomorrow, or next month, but you will surely get your own bad karma, remember that!

Instaquote

Here's another hobby of mine, I love collecting quotes. I remember I used to have a small notebook where I write quotes that inspire me and write striking quotes from the books that I am reading. When I joined twitter,  I stopped writing in my notebook and instead tweet and retweet my favorite quotes (level up na :).  What I like about twitter is that I can always go back to my previous tweets anytime I want to read them again.

Now that I have an Instagram account, I decided to level up this hobby of mine. I discovered this very nice application on iPhone to create beautiful text images. I first tried the free version of Instaquote and I instantly liked this app. Since the options in the free version are very limited, I upgraded to the Pro version which is a paid application (not bad at 170 JPY) so that I can make my creations more creative.  Here are some of the picture quotes that I created and posted in my Instagram account and got a lot of thumbs up from other instagrammers :).  The background pics are all mine.  I love taking photos so I use my own photos as background.

Sakura (Cherry blossoms)

I took this photo on the way to Hachikita ski resort.

Boracay Paradise :)

Spring tulips

http://instagram.com/glo_gee

Amazing Benefits of Strawberries

I love strawberries! Strawberries are in season now here in Japan, so I always make it a point to buy strawberries every time I  get the chance to go to Gourmet. The price is a little bit expensive, but the benefits are worth the price.

50 Things Money Can't Buy

Money changes everything, as I remember from the song of Cindi Lauper (in the 80's), but money definitely can not buy everything.

===========

Money

It can buy a house, but not a home.

It can buy a bed, but not sleep.

It can buy a clock, but not time.

It can buy a  book, but not knowledge.

It can buy a position, but not respect.

It can buy medicine, but not health.

It can buy blood, but not life.

It can buy sex, but not love.

Spring Photo Challenge

I joined Instagram about 8 months ago but I was not active in posting pictures because I didn't know how it works back then.  I decided to reactivate my Instagram last December when my 2 girls finally joined the band wagon :). I started following their account.  I learned from them how to make my Instagram fun and exciting by using different filters to enhance my photos and how to use hashtags to share my photos to other photo enthusiasts out there and to gain likers and followers too.  I started posting pics again after being inactive for 6 months :).

For this month, I will be doing something different on my Instagram to revive my passion on photography. I didn't actually lose my passion for taking pictures. I just don't have much time now to spend on this hobby given my busy schedule.

I decided to join the Spring Photo Challenge of iHeartFaces for the month of March.  The mechanics of this photo challenge is very simple: submit one photo or as many photos as you can that follow the theme for that day. Add your photo on Instagram or Twitter and use  the hashtag iheartfaces so that everyone can find your photo entry.  There are really no strict guidelines for this challenge. You can participate anytime you can, can join any day or all of the days, there is no stress at all (yay!).  Well, this is really a fun challenge because it brings out the creativity of everyone.  I hope I will be able to complete this challenge till the end of this month.

I have submitted my photo entries from Day 4 to Day 9, and tried to catch up the first 3 days that I missed. I have completed the 9 themes as of today, yay!

http://instagram.com/glo_gee

Message for Today

Today, Glo, we believe God wants you to know that ...

if you feel too busy, you are.

Give yourself permission to be un-busy. Give yourself an hour or a day to simply be. 

Allow yourself the luxury of a small retreat. Allow your spirit time to be restored. 

Even God took a day of rest.

What's Up?

I just came back from a ski trip with Rokko Island Pinoy friends in Okuibuki ski resort located in Shiga prefecture.  It was a fun trip as usual.  I am tired and sleepy now, so I will not write long. I will post more pics next time.  Happy Sunday!

7 Rules of Life

A very timely reminder ...

Happy 5th Birthday Kent!

Today is one of the days where the word "diet" does not exist in my vocabulary, not again :).  We just had a children's party in our Pinoy community here in Rokko Island for Kent's 5th birthday celebration. As expected, food was overflowing. I over indulged with Filipino food and ate maybe more than 3500 calories, never mind the diet, haha!.  During celebrations like this, we usually help the celebrant's mom in cooking food for the handa,  and we usually cook a lot.  Oh well, Filipinos love food and after the party, we still have "pabalot" :).

Happy 5th birthday Kent!

With the cute birthday celebrant

Baked goodies prepared by the celebrant's mom Helen

candies for the kids while playing

Kids busy playing with the games prepared by the game masters Bimbo and Olga.

Here we are with our face painting, supposed to be for the kids, but the adults enjoyed it too!

Face painting

Health Tip: Drink Water on Empty Stomach

Worth sharing health tips.  This was shared by a friend on facebook and thought of sharing it here. I want to try it.

~~DRINK WATER ON EMPTY STOMACH~~

It is popular in Japan today to drink water immediately after waking up every morning. Furthermore, scientific tests have proven its value. We publish below a description of use of water for our readers. For old and serious diseases as well as modern illnesses the water treatment had been found successful by a Japanese medical society as a 100% cure for the following diseases:

Headache, body ache, heart system, arthritis, fast heart beat, epilepsy, excess fatness, bronchitis asthma, TB, meningitis, kidney and urine diseases, vomiting, gastritis, diarrhea, piles, diabetes, constipation, all eye diseases, womb, cancer and menstrual disorders, ear nose and throat diseases.

METHOD OF TREATMENT
1. As you wake up in the morning before brushing teeth, drink 4 x 160ml glasses of water

2. Brush and clean the mouth but do not eat or drink anything for 45 minute

3. After 45 minutes you may eat and drink as normal.

4. After 15 minutes of breakfast, lunch and dinner do not eat or drink anything for 2 hours

5. Those who are old or sick and are unable to drink 4 glasses of water at the beginning may commence by taking little water and gradually increase it to 4 glasses per day.

6. The above method of treatment will cure diseases of the sick and others can enjoy a healthy life.

The following list gives the number of days of treatment required to cure/control/reduce main diseases:
1. High Blood Pressure (30 days)
2. Gastric (10 days)
3. Diabetes (30 days)
4. Constipation (10 days)
5. Cancer (180 days)
6. TB (90 days)
7. Arthritis patients should follow the above treatment only for 3 days in the 1st week, and from 2nd week onwards – daily..

This treatment method has no side effects, however at the commencement of treatment you may have to urinate a few times.
It is better if we continue this and make this procedure as a routine work in our life. Drink Water and Stay healthy and Active.

This makes sense .. The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals not cold water. Maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating!!! Nothing to lose, everything to gain...

For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you.
It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion.

Once this 'sludge' reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine.
Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.

A serious note about heart attacks:

· Women should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting.

· Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.

· You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack.

· Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms.

· 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up.

· Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. 

The more we know, the better chance we could survive...

We Meet People for a Reason

We don't meet people by accident. They are meant to cross our path for a reason or for a lesson.

Something to ponder on...

Five Lessons From TFPYMH

Five Lessons from the book "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom

The First Lesson:

"That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind."

There are no random events in life. People are all connected in one way or another.

The Second Lesson:

" Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big sacrifices."

"Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else".

Sacrifice is a part of life. We make small and big sacrifices for the people who are important to us.  When I was assigned to work here in Japan in 2007, we moved here as a family. My 2 daughters continued their studies at the Canadian International School here in Kobe (thanks to my employer). When both of them graduated from high school, they had to leave Japan to study in college. I can not give up my job to be with them. So I have to sacrifice for them and they also have to sacrifice living away from their parents.  This is a big sacrifice for all of us, but we trust God's plan for us.

The Third Lesson: 

"Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves."

Eddie hated his father so much that's why it was so hard for him to forgive his father.  His father treated him badly when he was a kid until he got older. His father had caused him so much emotional damage and it was hard for him to forgive and forget what his father had done to him.

No matter how bad a person has harmed you, you must learn to forgive and forget.  Otherwise, you will just do more harm to yourself.  Release anger and learn the valuable art of forgiveness. That's what I did. I learned to forgive and forget this person who betrayed me and hurt me badly.  I felt much better and at peace after doing that. 

"Forgive. That's because no one is born with anger. And when we die, the soul is freed of it."

"In order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did, and why you no longer need to feel it."

The Fourth Lesson 

Love is never lost even in death.

"Lost love is still love." 

"Life has to end, love doesn't."

The Fifth Lesson

Everyone has a purpose on this earth. We are all here for a reason.

Through the fifth person whom he met in heaven, Eddie finally realized his purpose on earth which made him appreciate the life that he lived that he once thought as meaningless.