Benj’s Busy Blog

It’s my first week at work, and the week ran by fast since there is a lot of work to do and you barely felt the week pass by. During lunch at Pho Cali, there were several interesting topics that came out and there were many things I also wanted to share, that I didn’t really mention right away not to divert conversations into another direction. Read the rest of this entry �

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In tough times, I need to reassess the following:

1. Cable TV/Internet/Phone – Right now I’m with Time Warner Cable for all TV, Internet and digital land line phone. For cable, I think Cox is not available in my area. But I can do DishTV or AT&T Universe. For internet, the other option is AT&T DSL. For phone, AT&T, or might as well just use a MagicJack so it’s cheaper.
2. Cellphone Package – Having an iPhone and several family members under the same plan, I think I am not changing providers, but I might look into the plans more and see whatever additional cuts I can make.
3. Data Centers – I have been hosting many websites for many years, since 1997. Reseller hosting, Co-located servers, Dedicated Servers, VPS etc. Maybe it is time to check these out again see where I can save more.
4. Domain Name Pricing – I am selling domains for many years at the price $8.88 even before NSI did the last price update on the .com and .net. Maybe it is time to move the price a little up.
5. Primary Credit Cards to use - Having various credit cards, some have more interest than others. I have to reassess which ones I should use more and which ones I use less. And which ones I should pay off the whole complete balance right away.

whew, lots of homework for me.

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I guess everyone has their own reasons to donate blood. Below is 18 year old Jessica Busby who donates blood for more money and possible earn just a little more to help out in gasoline expenses.

San Diego Residents Near Downtown, Make a Change, Safe a Life and Donate Blood on September 9, 2008

I donate blood on a regular basis. Since I am from San Diego I normally go to the San Diego Blood Bank, but this September 9, 2008 I encourage everyone in San Diego to donate blood at Little Italy in Downtown San Diego. This will be for the American Red Cross Southern California Chapter. This is an urgent appeal for Blood Donors. The Blood Supply has reached critical levels and blood donations are needed immediately. All donations are by appointment only:

3 easy steps to help make a change and safe lives: Read the rest of this entry �

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There’s so much work to do. I get task from everywhere and meetings to attend, presentations to finish and at our office, we maximize the use of MS Outlook. We share calendars. We set our meetings well and invite people and update them through our calendars.

And today I receive this calendar notice: Read the rest of this entry �

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While working on my computer at the 17th floor of a building in Downtown San Diego, I felt the tremors right away and looked outside the window. Since all other buildings were not in close proximity, you cannot see that much the strenght of the sway but my window blind were moving to show that this was undeniably an earthquake in San Diego.

Some group of employees ended up going down the stairs from the 17th floor just to safe just in case there were any after effects. We went to a deli about 3 blocks away and stayed there for a while.

After coming back, I checked the epicenter right away. It was at 33.955 degress North and 117.765 degrees West that registered 5.4 on the Ritcher scale detected by Seismographs from USGS, Caltech, CGS, UCB, UCSD and UNR. The location was about 46 kilimeters away from the LA Civic Center. Read the rest of this entry �

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I join contest in the past mainly to test what I know and in the process learn more. And after doing about 2 or 3 of them, my attitude changed into I am joining SEO Challenges because I want to win! I liked these SEO competitions and worked a great deal into them trying my best to win and so far it paid off. Now it seems that after winning the previous SEO contest I have joined, it has helped promote myself, market myself to the Internet community mainly in the Philippines and other countries outside the US. Then I have seen more and more blog post talking about me (but not linking to me grrrr *LOL*) and I guess with the information out there I have seen a good mash up of information and is pretty accurate with the information about me but this site never contacted me about it. I have a professional profile on the Philippine Government’s National Computer Center. Listed in their Consultants / IT Professionals List. But there is nothing really special about that since they have a pretty long list of Filipino IT Professionals. I am just surprised with the length of info i have that is accurate. But again I am also not surprised since after reading the profile, I know where the information came from, interview blog post, other people I know that blogged about me, I blogged about myself, from my social media profiles, mainly LinkedIn and other stuff. (Wala man lang link papunta sa akin. *LOL*) Read the rest of this entry �

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The past few weeks has been up and down for my servers. Somehow, it was also up and down for me. I was sick since May 30. Started with some simple soar throat, which I did not mind at first since everything seemed tolerable and just did my best to get rid of any germs with antiseptic. But colds and cough started settling in as well and by Sunday, June 1, 2008 I was already not feeling well. June 1 was also the start of the Busby SEO Challenge which I have barely worked on yet. The following week, I was not able to go to work. for the next 3 days. Read the rest of this entry �

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Sometimes I make suicidal decisions. I call them suicidal because they are like decisions that are more bound to fail but I still go for them always thinking I can overcome all odds. For some reason I always had this kind of attitude. I do not really call them stupid decisions but really challenging and if every it can be called to have calculated risk, it is really a tough calculation.

I decided to buy a piece of land

Ok, that even sounds good right? Land is always a good investment. Problem is I am not really the person that has a super deep pocket that can buy anything I want to. Last month, near the end of April, I went on a trip to take a look at some piece of land some one has offer me and wife. With the high cost of real estate and me having a full time job in an expensive city, and my wife who is less than a year in the US without a job yet, and us running a small business to make ends meet is not really the type of occupational situation we would want to have in investing in real estate. We have 2 daughters with us in the US as well. But why did I still decide to buy a piece of land? Read the rest of this entry �

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It’s now Day two of the fire storm in San Diego. We spent the night at Mira Mesa at Uncle Totoy and Auntie Linda’s place. Thank you very much for accommodating us all including two noisy kids that ran all over the place. Added challenges was we had my Sis-in-law’s new born 1 month premature baby Anica with us whom we picked up at Sharp Mary Birth Hospital.

I tried going to work on Tuesday, day 3 of the wild fire but my wife and in-laws needed me for several important errands going back and forth to the pharmacy getting their medicines. With no computer to use and my phone, a Palm 750 mysteriously kept rebooting all day, I was offline most of the day. Read the rest of this entry �

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Just an update for friends and family. If your not aware, probably just watch CNN or FoxNews or BBCNews and check the San Diego Fire. Starting last Sunday, there we big fires in Southern California. Some in LA, Orange County and San Diego.

Fire was due to low humidity causing super dry air with high temperature and high speed winds reaching 65MPH. Heat helps burn more. Wind gives more oxygen for combustion and blows it in directions that make it spread more and super dry conditions makes the fire keep going on. Read the rest of this entry �

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When I was at the Park and Ride parking lot at Mira Mesa, San Diego, I was with my wife and daughters and with my Sis-in-law and nephew as we waited for the shuttle bus to arrive. When it came Jamie started to cry knowing that I will be away for a week.

Going back the old-fashioned way

While on the plane, heading to Paradise Philippines, I was preparing my presentation for the SEMCon 2007, using my wife’s laptop since mine did not have the latest software and I barely had time updating mine as I was preparing to leave. On the plane, the laptop died since it was not fully charged. So I then decided to organize my thoughts on my cellphone running Windows Mobile, but it too was nearly drained and I needed what ever charge it may have for emergency calls once I land in Manila. So I prepared the outline of my presentation with a pen and paper. Read the rest of this entry �

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