A Special Day for a Very Special Man

If you have been a frequent visitor of my blogs, you should have known by now that the name Uncle Che pops up every now and then in any of my published articles. And why not? It is worth every mention! He is a very special man not because he has been a huge help especially on the technical aspects of blogging but because he has such very special and admirable qualities that you would find very endearing.

I am no techy-savvy type of person. I am just too afraid to mess up everything with my blogs. Good thing he is always there, ever ready to always extend a helping hand. He is the type of person who offers his help even without me telling him anything. Well, you must be curious how come I knew Uncle Che. Let me relate to you how my friendship with him began. 

I have been frequenting his blog since July of 2008. I was then a stalker, haha! I never get myself involved with the discussions at AZ Blogging. I was too afraid what I publish in the form of comment would be a huge mistake. Not until I saw one message at one of my posts. Uncle Che was actually asking me for the image URL of my blog!

As I have earlier mentioned, I am no techy-savvy type of person. I don't even know what image URL mean, haha! I felt very honored someone would love to place the image URL of my blog at his sidebar.  I can't help from gushing! I didn't realized then it was just the beginning of a more deeper friendship from a co-blogger who came from the opposite part of the world. I don't know how Uncle Che found my way to my mailbox. I didn't bother to ask. But one day, I received a very heartwarming message informing me something was amiss at the new blog I had just purchased at the time. That email came to offer his help to fix my newly-purchased domain Kuerdas. 

From then on, we became very good buddies frequently exhanging messages at Yahoo Messenger and even over Voice Chat. Believe me when I say I had the most difficult time comprehending his deep and thick accent, hehe! But over time, I got used to it. And the best thing of it all was that I was able to meet her fiancee Baby Noela, too! But due to time constraints on Noela's part, we could hardly involve ourselves in a deeper and more prolonged conversation as much as we would love to because of her schooling. She is currently taking her Masters Degree. I feel very proud when Noela has been mentioning my name n Her About Me Page. She said:

"Maybe you should ask Scotty's Princess, her name is Ellaine but most people call her Lainy. The first thing she would tell you about me is that I am Dr. Luv's (naughty) baby, a girl (soon to be a woman) with lots of strong determination to pursue her numerous passions..."

Looking back, it was a blessing from the first day I've had the guts to publish my first ever comment for Uncle Che's blog. If I may just quote:

"You asked yourself, why we bloggers love you? Well, one of the few reasons why a blogger is loved by readers is that he is always sincere and genuine. You speak your mind from your heart. We, as your readers, can feel that. Personally, I do not go for stunning brilliance on the way a blogger writes. It’s how he communicates with people and that it’s always coming from the heart. "

I was a little stunned when he replied and told me that he found my words soft and encouraging.  The friendship blossomed from then on and was taken to a higher level. There was no turning back! I had even handed him the responsibility of raffling and declaring the lucky winners for the Lainy's Birthday Bash Contest which he willingly accepted. Furthermore, Uncle Che and Baby Noela became my guest bloggers to this humble blog of mine wherein they both kept a handful of readers excited and giddy of their own love stories. The two of them have their own versions to tell. Uncle Che talked about the Stages in a Love Relationship (Part 1) - Uncle Che and Baby Noela while Noela, on the other hand, wrote the article Thank God for a Lover like Uncle Che. I have always told Uncle Che umpteen of times how lucky they both are to have each other. It was truly a match made in heaven! 

Later, in his newly-acquired blog, Novice Master, he expressed how he was deeply going Filipino. He talked so highly of Filipino bloggers and friends which made me so very proud to be one! He even expressed he would love to come and visit the Philippines whenever circumstances would allow him.  

Now my friendship with these wonderful people, Uncle Che and Noela, made me cherish my blogging journey more and more It is not everyday that we have the opportunity to meet genuine people.

Since February 29 is Uncle Che's BIG day (I added the 29th day in my calendar for this year, hehe!), I want Uncle Che to know how he has touched my life and many other lives out there. I wish you many good things to come this year, Uncle Che. I know you have so many dreams and aspirations you would want accomplished, especially in helping your fellow Africans to become computer literate and educated. I hope you would see the realizations of some of them soon. Goodluck on your online projects especially on Camhood and Pen2net. Please take good care of your health. Tough guys get sick, too! You have been working like a horse. Don't let Noela worry so much about you. And lastly, I can't wait to see you and Noela tying the knot very, very soon!

Have a very meaningful and blessed 29th birthday! 

SEE ALSO RELATED POSTS:

• Happy Birthday to Uncle Che!
• Featured BFF: Uncle Che of AZ BLOGGING
• Uncle Che, Happy Birthday!

A L L Y! 

First commenter for this post! 

How Much Do You Value Your Commenters?

Everytime we hit the publish button for every articles we hurdle to write for our blogs, we deliver a message. That message could be a reflection of who we are, what we believe in and just whatever trivial thoughts that walk through our heads. The message could be clearly and effectively adhered to by our respective visitors or they could have opposing views on the matter. Whichever case it is, I personally would want to hear each and everyone's points of view by airing their respective sentiments, additional and substantial inputs related to the subject or if not related, a simple hello being sent via the comment section is always appreciated. Commenter's contribution to the discussion at hand is always of great value.

What really makes a blog interesting is when we have readers reading our stuffs. I want to quote Uncle Che of AZ Blogging for this. He aptly said of which I so much conform:

"I have always considered the art of commenting as the "BEST SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS FOR BLOGS". Your blog can be on BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog, Bumpzee... Irrespective of how much users interact with our blogs, we still need their direct comments and that counts more than anything else..."

When it comes to commenting best practises, there is no irrelevant comment in my vocabulary. Everyone who takes extra time and effort in hitting the comment box and eventually publishing a comment is highly appreciated by yours truly. Spammers have no place in my blogs though.

The power of commenting can actually get our blogs to greater heights. By commenting, our presence is not only warmly felt but we can increase traffic to our respective blogs as well. In addition, it enables us to share our insights and gives more depth to the topic being discussed. And here's the catch! Get your blog indexed in search engines by posting relevant comments. That's only one of the real great value of commenting.

OK!

You do publish comments at other blogs. But how well motivated are you in coming forth and commenting more? Are you recognized for the inputs shared or for the frequent comments you've had posted for a certain blog?

Well, for the First Commenter's Club, you will get due recognition! We shall be recognizing those people who have placed the first ever comment for a specific post. I do not exactly know who authored this idea but I stole this brilliant one from a great and lovely blogging pal, Mariuca of Wishing on a Falling Star. For almost a year, I've tried to install a few widget codes to identify the Top Commenters for my blogs, but my effort were for naught. I always fail. Not until Marzie came to the rescue! She made everything possible! Her unselfish act is truly commendable! Together with the brilliant Uncle Che of Novice Master, they were able to install the JS KIT and Comment Luv Plug Ins. These two people are my angels! What could Lainy be without you, guys???A million thank you's to the both of you!

To further encourage commenters to share their thoughts and establish rapport and camaraderie with each one of us, this blog and my other blog, Our Journey to Forever, shall be linking up to those people who shall be identified as first commenters. The Top Commenters for the month shall also get a few incentive in the form of EntreCard credits. These shall be my comment policy across my blogs. As you can see, I also try my best to answer all posted comments. I do not moderate comments because I am not online most of the time.

I am therefore encouraging everyone to get involved and share your thoughts as long as it is not a violation of my comment policy. Rude and nasty comments shall be subject for deletion. And please... No more marriage proposals again, OK? LOL!

SEE ALSO RELATED ARTICLES:

• The Power of Blog Commenting
• Yet Another Type of Commenting Reward
• Get Some Love for Commenting Easily
• Commenting Best Practices
  

First commenter for this post! 

Learning is a Continuous Process

Everytime I go to the banks for my personal and office transactions, I have always wondered how it's like to be working for them. I mean, banking jobs is a little stressful and demands more of your time. But it looks a little glamorous to me. You need to be always at your best. The tellers are beautiful and they are wearing their best clothes and they are also fully made up. Sometimes I wished I should have taken business courses so that there is a chance for me to be working at the banks. But since I am no good at figures and science, I took a Bachelor of Arts degree major in Political Science for my undergraduate studies.

I thought a degree in Political Science was the best course available at the time. I was actually all fired up in going to Law school after four years of study. But my priorities were focused on getting a good job after graduation and helping out my family. There was no time to go to school again.

Oh! But no!

I have always been in school after my college graduation. I took some units in the Graduate School. I was about to write my thesis but again, my attention was diverted to another priorioty. I took a short-term course in Medical Transcription. I finished the course in six months but I wasn't able to use it, hehe! I also took many other short courses that enhanced my skills in baking and cooking.

I still firmly believe that learning doesn't end on graduation day. It is a continuous process and by learning, we grow as an individual and as a person... 

Blogging Is Now A Family Affair

With two of my cousins now being active in the blogosphere, I have thought that it's a lot more fun with family members being around here. Even if me and my cousins Mystique of Mystique's Moments and Allena of In the Eyes of the Beholder are miles apart from each other, we can now get to update each other's lives with our blogs. By going through each posts, we will get a chance to learn on what's new with our lives with each day that passed us by. Even if we are not able to exchange daily conversations, our blogs can speak in our behalf. They can get to penetrate on what's working up in my head and I will have the chance as well to know what's with them.

The saga of Mystique's journey to forever unfolded when she wrote about their 5th anniversary. I was also able to get a good glimpse on how she spends her Saturdays and Sundays. Through blogs, I was also able to comprehend Ally and her Dad's relationship better when she posted on what happened between the two of them in the past and how she wished she could turn back the hands of time. She also enumerated the things she is so grateful for. These things we don't get to talk about comprehensively and whenever we do get the chance to talk, we don't have all the time in the world. But our blogs made it possible for us to speak our minds and get to update each other's lives. I believe it is truly one of the great perks of blogging.

Here's my list of bloggers who are family/ blood-related:

• Siblings Mayang of Hawaiinas and Twerlyn of Twerlermz Blog
• Siblings DJ Tammy and Rosilie of A Closet of Limitless Adventures
• Siblings Joy of The Luttrull Journey and Ivy of The Designer's Chic
• Siblings Rose of The Solitairy Love and Junivel of Junivel Online Journal
• Couple Jemi of Live, Laugh and Love and Roger of Life with Rog
• Couple Jennie of Marriage and Beyond and Jeff of Football Videos and Pictures
• Mother and Son tandem of Polly of Random Ramblings and son Beaker of Beaker's Dimension
  
• Mother and Daughter tandem of Vilma of The Maiden's Testimony and daughter Lollii of My Kawaii Life.

I am sure there are still a lot of family/blood-related bloggers out there. I might be unaware of your relationships but we do share the same passion for blogging.

My Fourth Blog: The Certified Fashionable Chic

In September, the thought of coming up with a fourth blog was very tempting but I wasn't too adamant. Updating three blogs regularly is already too impossible for me to accomplish, how much more adding one more blog in my cap? That's too much for me to handle! But since the setting up of the new domain was made possible by my very good friend Uncle Che of AZ Blogging and the blog theme was masterfully done by the artistic hands and brilliant mind of a pretty and sexy friend of mine, Ivy of the Designer's Chic, I had no choice but to eventually accept the given fact that indeed, my fourth blog is already up and running.

So a fashion blog it shall be.

Though I am a person who dressses up for comfort, it isn't too bad to dress both for comfort and for fashion, right? Hehe! I owe Ivy a lot not only for the blog's layout but for the blog's name as well. When I was about on the verge of giving up and wanted to hit my head because I coudn't come up with a nice title for the new blog, Ivy came to the rescue, as always.

I want so many things featured in my fashion blog but time constraints or simply the lack of it made it a little impossible for me to do what I want.

When I made my first post for my fourth blog in September, I said:

"This blog shall be a niche for glamoruous gals like me who wants to know the latest craze and trends in fashion, apparels, some beauty tips, and a whole lot more. This blog shall especially talk about how a girl can be trendy and glamorous. I am a little apprehensive though I wouldn't be able to update this blog more frequently but I will try my very, very best..."

I still haven't been true to my words. Not so much beauty tips, not so much posts on fashion crazes and trends. I' ve only made 15 posts in that blog since September. Not too many huh! Updating 4 of my blogs after a long day's hard work is keeping me so mentally drained! Good thing my good friend Polly of Random Ramblings helped me out in giving me ideas on what to write for my blog. She even went as far as scanning all fashion mags available and she sent them all to me for me to be able to post them in my blog. I appreciated so much her gesture!

I still have to live up to the blog's title- The Certified Fashionable Chic. It's still a far cry from what I really want to happen. Hopefully, with it's second layout (courtesy of Ivy) since its conception, I will be more inspired and motivated to update it more often.

Please take note of the The Certified Fashionable Chic's previous and current EntreCard widgets:

Previous EntreCard Widget

NEW EntreCard Widget

I Can't Resist The Oops

I vowed never to chase opportunities at one of the affiliate programs wherein one has to do the chasing. I do not have so much patience for that. But it is a little difficult to ignore the opportunities when the chasing is no longer done and yet the tasks are made available and offered on a silver platter. There is no need to do the refresh tasks countless times anymore. And the amount is just sooo tempting! If you know what I mean, hehe! I attribute this to having an imcrease in my Page Rank. I know I can't hold on to it for much longer. I wanted to savor the moment while it lasts. I hope the blessings won't ran out that soon.

I Am A Blogger!

For those of you who have been frequenting my blogs, you must be aware by now that I am so much passionate about blogging. It has become an addiction and eventhough I am quite busy with work which is on a 8-5 basis and preoccupied with a lot of other stuffs, I always find time to blog, or if not to blog, doing my usual daily routine such as replying on comments, reading and commenting on blogger's posts that are of interest to me, and dropping cards to more than a thousand blogs everyday... without fail.

My blogs are my babies. It never really came to mind that I would take blogging seriously to the point of contemplating on giving up my own job. I became really, really serious with blogging when I got my own domains April of this year. When I mean serious, it means I keep it updated at least once a week.

Though most of the things you read here is all about me, myself and I, I still would want to make the most out of your time by coming up with articles that are thought of. Everytime I make a post, I don't write them just for the sake of posting. And it's never for the sole reason that I need to write because I have an audience. It's all for the love of writing and expressing myself well through this medium.

If not too busy at work, I even draft those that comes to mind in random. But because of time constraints, I admit that quality articles is sometimes unattainable. People have always been talking about quality and content being king. But to me, it is subjective. If you think this blog is low in quality and I am just wasting your time, you can opt to never come back. But still, there is always room for improvement. I always want to improve as a person, as a blogger. I never cease in learning because it's the thing that I crave. I have learnt quite a lot from other people's points of view and the learning doesn't stop there.

The gift of friendship that I've shared with many of you here in the cyberworld has kept me motivated to try harder and improve. And because I've learned so much by being a blogger, I am sporting this shirt to shout to the world that I'm proud to be a blogger. This shirt was created and designed by the artistic hands of a very good blogger friend, Rosilie of Rosilie: My Blog, whom I had the privilege of meeting in the flesh during the 2nd Mindanao Bloggers Summit.

What about you? Are you proud to be a blogger?

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

To answer the question on what kind of blogger I am, I deemed it best to collect the comments and citations I got from other blogs. That is to play safe and to do away from speaking biased, hehe!

The comments posted on the article Too Many Things To Do, But Too Little Time could very well speak as to what kind of blogger I am. These comments were very much valued. Some of the comments posted made me re-think my priorities.

I would like to especially quote four of the commenters because they have somehow influenced me to alter my blogging perspectives at some point. Now this doesn't mean I am playing favorites here for selecting only 4 of them. It doesn't mean I value less those who weren't quoted. I might just link them up in the next posts I am thinking of posting.

FOONGPC:

" I understand what you are going through. I also cannot find enough time in a day to write new post and drop Entrecards. I think dropping 900 blogs is crazy! I won't be able to achieve that and I don't think I want to. There is more to life than blogging and dropping cards. And if the reason we want to drop so many cards is to increase our page ranking in Google, then I think it's the wrong way to do so. Many bloggers who are earning big bucks don't join Entrecard and don't do any dropping of cards. We need to learn their methods instead of relying solely on Entrecard. I also learnt that some bloggers don't write new post for more than a month, and they are still earning huge money and getting lots of traffic, so my conclusion is updating your blog has no effect on the traffic to your blog. I don't have the answers but I'm learning. I love to blog but I don't want it to take over my life."

ERIC:

"How much extra time would you have if you concentrated on writing a couple extra posts rather than dropping 900 blogs? You have good content - you could have a lot more! "

ROBIN:

"I only started blogging within the past couple of weeks and already I'm beginning to feel the addiction. I can't imagine how you could possibly do that many drops in a day! When it comes to writing, I'm making every attempt to post daily but I don't want to get in the habit of posting just for the sake of it. At the moment, my writing is more for myself and in that way I can keep it honest. I don't want to fall into the trap of "writing for an audience" because I think doing so affects your perspective."

LILLY'S LIFE:

"Blogging is addictive and its hard to get that balance. I wonder how it's physically possible to even do what you are doing so my hat is off to you - you are dOing incredibly well fitting in 48hrs in 24hrs. Family is the most important things though and content is king. You write inredibly well though so seems like you have that covered. Hope you strike the balance that keeps you happy. But never feel guilty for not dropping, don't even go down that path..."

BLOGGING BOTH FOR FUN AND FOR MONEY

Has blogging took over my life?

I can say yes, it sometimes has. I tend to set aside some activities in favor of blogging and I spend more hours blogging than I usually intend to. Contrary to what FoongPc have said, I am not after for high PR. This blog is PR 1 but I am sure in the next Google update, I will be slapped with a zero yet again because I am into doing paid reviews. But I am not after of earning B I G bucks here. I do not dream to be like John Chow, hehe. Blogging is only my second priority next to my work and I have fun dropping cards to different blogs. I just wish there's more time for me to be able to drop more and more cards to even more blogs in a day.

Let me just emphasize here that I do the dropping of cards not for the SOLE purpose of earning money but because I do ENJOY it. Updating my blog is something that I always try my best to accomplish, 2 posts at least in a week. It's because I do not want my visitors to get disappointed by coming here and there's nothing they could see but all the same posts that's been up and running for a month! And I have all the time in the world to drop cards and not update my blog, huh! I think it's ridiculous! It hasn't happened for this blog as of yet. And again, it's NOT all about money. But who doesn't love added revenue? It only comes as a BONUS for me though.

BLOG FOR QUALITY NOT QUANTITY

There's more to blogging than just writing and hitting the publish button.

Quality is still king and mere quantity is nothing. Better to have one article that's well-written and properly laid out than to have written a lot but of poor quality. When I say quality, I mean it in MY own standards, not yours, hehe! Further, we need to go out of our respective niches sometimes to socialize and meet other bloggers from different parts of the world. We do not just confine ourselves in our own blogs.

BLOGGING FOR PASSION

I am very passionate about blogging because it's the only hobby and past time I know. Blogging have enabled me to come across wonderful blogs and beautiful people. I am using all these to my own advantage.

To finally end this post, AZ BLOGGING has this to say about me and my blogs:

"I can’t really explain how much I love blogs that mix up personal diaries and ramblings. Lainy’s Blogs (Lainy’s Musings and Our Journey to Forever) are very good examples of such. On her blogs, she talks about her work, her prince, her country, and also gives us an update of the things she does. She puts them down in a plain manner, free of sugarcoating and one can really learn quite a lot from them."

I took the blogging test for the question what kind of blogger I am and the result of the test is:

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And you make it as entertaining as possible. You may be guilty of over-sharing a bit on your blog, but you can't help it. Your life is truly an open book. Or in this case, an open blog!

What about you? Would you want to know what kind of blogger you are?