Help me Become the Wok-A-Holic Kitchen Star!

I joined the electrolux cooking contest where one of the prizes is a scholarship to CCA. I really really really want to win this! There is a people's choice category on Facebook. Can you please vote for me? And can you tell your friends too! Hehe!

1 - Click this link https://www.facebook.com/thelittlewhitebook/app_252989634798473
2 - LIKE the page
3 - Scroll down to Rigette Osoteo, then click LIKE. 
4 - New page will appear, click GO TO APP

All voters can also win prizes from electrolux!! Please vote for me!!! 

SALAMAT!!! TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!

Pinoy Pride and Idiocy

After the American War in the Philippines, 1/6 of our population died. Along with them our culture and our balls. Some of those who died were idealists who still believed in liberty, some were just victims standing in harm's way or chased by it. But there were people who fought hard to reclaim or even remember who we are as a nation. Who were we before we became the Spaniard’s Filipino? I guess the people who asked this question all died in that war.

Before this war we were little brown cockroaches the Spanish stepped on, then we incarnated to become the "little brown brothers" who worship the fountain of milk chocolate, scrubbing our skins thin to be as white as theirs, blurting out idioms not even knowing what they mean. And we got stuck. So comfortably stuck that we do not even know we are.

"We believe that if indolence exists, it exists only as the offspring of ignorance and not as an essential quality that they attribute to the country and to her climate…” -Dr. Jose Rizal

in·do·lent [in-dl-uhnt] having or showing a disposition to avoid exertion; slothful: an indolent person.

Dr. Jose Rizal addressed the indolence that is prevalent in our nation. We refuse to stand up from our butts, we refuse to take action when people step on us, we refuse learning and progress, we refuse real freedom. Why? Ignorance. Ignorance from what? Ignorant that we are far from free, that we are a nation of noble people. We walk around, sipping our frappuccinos, patting each other's backs and being a cool "PINOY AND PROUD" advocate (Not much to be proud of really in the past 100 years). But as Rizal puts it, we are not just innately indolent. So there is hope.

“Teach us, educate us, and enlighten us, and indifference, apathy, and indolence will disappear. The blind man who has seen light cannot help but love it." -Dr. Jose Rizal

So let's just accept it. Acceptance is the first step. Accepting that we are not free, and that is of our liking. Accepting that we are ignorant, and have been for around 500 years. Accepting the responsibility that no one else could free us but us.

No flag waving would set us free. No international proclamation will. No other people will. It’s only us. We have to set our minds free. We have to fight our ignorance. After each of the 95 million Filipinos are enlightened, then we can say we are free.

Someday, our nation might experience having the mud taken off our eyes. If not, there's always the resurrection. The 1/6 of the population that died in the war could teach us how it really is to be Filipino.

Till then, ok, let’s wave the flag in Bulacan or Cavite every year hoping that it will wake somebody up.

When I grow up, I want to be like Sara Blakely!

TV-less, these are the stories I get to follow. 

When I grow up, I want to be like Sara Blakely! :D

I want to...

1. Have a kick ass innovative product that is heaven sent to people's problems

2. Have creative strategies and ideas in getting your brand out

3. Recognize opportunities even before they knock

4. Have the determination to stick through challenges

5. Have the balls to just do it and play the "big "man's" game

6. Look gorgeous doing it

Forbes Feature on Spanx Woman Sara Blakely

Learning How to Ride a Bike Speech

Remember how it felt like riding a bike for the first time?

The energy of this boy will make you remember!

Rock on little man!

"Everybody, I know you can believe in yourself. If you believe in yourself, you will know how to ride a bike. If you don’t, you just keep practicing. You will get the hang of it, I know it. If you keep practicing, you will get the hang of it, and then you can get better and better at it if you do it.”

“Thumbs up everbody, for Rock ‘n’ Roll!”

Life Lessons from The Sims Free Play

My job in Research allows me to play A LOT of games (yay!). I play free flash games that could sometimes get crappy, I play virtual worlds, mobile games, facebook games, etcetera, etcetera. But there is one game that I have learned to love the most, I even sneak just to play it - The Sims!

I love the entire series! SimCity, Sims 3, Sims Social, and their latest game on the iPad, The Sims Free Play.

The game is part fantasy, part reality. You get a sim, your character, and let it "live" in a house that is within a small town. You play god and choose your sim's physical appearance, character and fashion sense. Your sim gets to do the boring stuff you do in real life like pee, do chores, work in a fire station or talk to other sims you don't like. On the other (and better) hand you get to do cool stuff like work in an art gallery, have a gorgeous house complete with a lawn & a dog and woohoo in the middle of a crowd.

After playing the game for a couple of weeks, I saw parallels between the Sims Free Play and real life.

It takes time and effort to build great friendship. Sims start off as strangers, then acquaintances, then friends, until they get to the point when they become best friends. The road from strangers to Best friends require a lot of action. You make two sims talk, be funny or nice to each other, chest bump, complain to each other. These actions take time and energy, just like in real life. If we want to make and keep friends, we must give them our time and energy.

 

Wealth is gained one Peso, Dollar, Rupee, Simoleon at a time. I had a task in the game where I need to build a business. When I checked the requirements, I needed to have $10,000 Simoleons. I only had around $2,000 Simoleons. I thought to myself "Oh no, game design flaw, an impossible task" and "They are limiting the free players and want us to purchase power ups! Evil, evil capitalist!" But I continued playing - planting seeds and baking cakes that later on gave Simoleons for profit, waiting for the dog to dig up treasures. I earned anywhere from $1 to $50 foe each action. I didn't even notice, I already have $15,000 Simoleons! More than what I needed! I just had to be patient. I just had to do my part by planting or baking. I just had to be open to opportunities and blessings when the dog digs up treasures. I just had to control myself not to buy the "special item" of the day, and be frugal. Slowly but surely, wealth grows.

 

God is loving, want us to excel, gives us everything we need and wants only the best for us. When I fail to play the game for some time, of course no one takes care of my sims. They become depressed, uninspired and weak because their basic needs are not met. When I don't play they do not eat, sleep, talk to each other, work, dance or watch tv. I hate it! I do not like it when the mood meter of my sim is red and almost empty. I make them do actions that would fill them up and make the mood meter green again. When the mood meter if filled to overflow, the sims become inspired. I love it when my sims are inspired because they glow when they are and they earn more for me.

If I feel like this towards non existent virtual drawings, then God who IS love probably feels over a billion times one million times more towards us. God more than wants to meet our needs, God wants us to overflow. God wants us to glow. God want us to be and do more.

 

After I realized these parallels, I stopped playing The Sims Free Play. I realized that I should stop playing god and be the sim and let God be my master.