Planning My Next US Visit

Well, it’s confirmed- my flight to LA is on May 30.  That means I have roughly just a little over a month to get ready for it.  This time, I’ll be staying for about a month, then I’ll be flying back with Mom, my sister and maybe a couple more aunts to meet up with the rest of my relatives to attend my brother’s wedding in July.

A month is still quite a bit of time.  And yes, I do have a plan to work out.  The ultimate goal, really, is to prepare for our eventual move to the US- for Cristina and myself.  I’m more like the advance party, to figure out our options and to get some business done.

First of all, I gotta get me a social security number.  I’ll need this to get me a bank account, and get my credit going.

Next, I’ll need to get a license, and hopefully, a car.  I’m thinking of a Honda.  Just a preference, really.  Have you heard? Honda launches VCM 643-  supposedly it’s great on fuel economy.

Then I gotta work on my business prospects- hopefully close a few new accounts, attend a few trade shows, build up a new network of suppliers, contacts and clients.

Lastly, I gotta start considering getting some real estate.  No idea how the market is right now, but I know I’ll have a better feel for it once I’m there.

Definitely there’s lots of stuff going on in-between.  Need to get me a new PC, the DSLR I’ve had my eyes on for so long, a new digital handycam, meet up with some old friends, spend some time with mom and my sister, and just basically have a good time.

Wish me luck

Cheers, everyone!

This Is What I Dig About Saturdays…

I woke up not more than 30 minutes ago- and here I am hunkered down in front of my PC blogging away while I got Creative Media Player cranking out some of my favorite tunes.  At this very moment, Josh Verdes is singing “Home”.  There’s something Mayer-esque about his style, and this song in particular reminds me of “Your Body Is A Wonderland”.

I find Saturday mornings as a perfect time to catch up on my blogging.  As you all know, I probably have at least 5 active blogs going on right now, all on a particular topic.  I realized that, looking through the  ‘Manage Posts’ tab, it turns out that I tend to amass quite a number of unfinished drafts.  This blog alone has five entries that need some finishing.  So it seems I have my work cut out for me today :).

Days like these are great for reading other people’s blogs too.  Thanks to PageFlakes (and thanks to Andrian Lee of AsiaPay for so recommending it), it’s so much easier to keep track of all my favorite blogs.  I can be really all too focused on work on weekdays that I tend to miss out on some noteworthy events that may have transpired over the week- and a quick review of blogs serves as a good way to bring myself up to speed.

For instance, while I’ve been busy at the radio station, there seems to be some activity on Multiply on a post of mine on Yahoo’s 10 Top Recommended Restaurants in Metro Manila.  I like it when friends of mine and friends of friends take time to drop in and give me their two cents’ worth.  And from the discussion on that post, it seems I’ll go try out a couple new restos this weekend- Sala in J. Nakpil is probably worth checking out, and maybe this Chocolat in SM Mall of Asia, or Conti’s in Serendra.

So I’ll probably end up working on my backlogs for a couple hours before heading out to the gym and get some chores done.  Oh the usual- groceries, pet supplies, laundry- nothing too exciting.  Cristina and I have ourselves the rest of the afternoon/evening to go visit a spa, watch a movie and have a leisurely dinner.  Then I’ll meet up with my friends much later in the evening to just hang out.

And yeah, I’ll most likely write about those too.  So check you all out soon.

Cheers, everyone.

Fixing and Re-positioning This Blog.

To be completely honest, I may have neglected this blog a bit- it’s been weeks since I last posted anything here. Mainly because I’ve been working on a few other projects these past couple of months.

The good thing is that is has given me a sort of clarity- an understanding of what this blog is supposed to be in the grand order of things.

I was just reading Aaron Wall’s SEO Book the other day (which is a highly recommended read, if you haven’t checked it out yet), and it sorta gave me an idea of how to go about fixing up my site.

Simply put, I have to consider three very basic things:

1. Who’s my target audience? Or more like, who would I want my blog to appeal to?

2. What do I plan to offer? Exactly what kind of content do I plan to put in “The Life and Times of The Renzie Man?”

3. What makes this blog different from all the millions of other blogs out there?

Those things considered, lemme go ahead and figure out what this blog really is all about. Here we go…

My Intended Target Market.

Who do I want to talk to? I want to reach out to an online audience who’d like to know how it is to live in the Philippines, from the point of a 30-something dude. That means reaching out to all kinds of travellers, locals interested in the bachelor lifestyle, my fellow Filipinos abroad who’d like to have a glimpse of home, and pretty much anyone genuinely interested in me- though I can’t imagine who, and exactly what kind of people those would be :).

What Kind of Content Would Be in this Blog?

This blog is a personal blog masquerading as a lifestyle-oriented piece of work. So while it is definitely something for shameless self-promotion, it aims to share useful tips, articles and opinions along the lines of…

• Bachelor Living in Metro Manila.
• Living Life Easier - Work-life Balance Tips and other useful bits of info to get the most out of our 24 hours a day.
• Workplace Woes and Worries- Don’t quit your day job- but don’t let your life revolve around work either.
• A Healthier Lifestyle- my attempt at losing the extra weight at least.
• Fun in Metro Manila- where to dine out, great spas to visit, local destinations, etc.
• My current projects
• Making money online- a little extra cash is always good, wouldn’t you agree?
• What I’m into- again, it’s all about me.

My Unique Selling Proposition.

The truth is, the blog is all about me, and therefore, I am selling me. This blog represents one of my first efforts in blogging. It is a true online journal of me and my little misadventures, not some blog meant positioned towards a particular niche. Of course I will come up with a concept blog from time to time, or pursue some online project- yeah, I’ll be linking it up here, so anyone who’s also interested can also check it out.

Now that I’ve pretty much figured it out, let’s get back to blogging now, shall we?

Renzie in LA. 20 Dec 2007: Pasalubong, Etc.

I flew to Los Angeles to meet up with my family for the holidays.  The following is part of a series of entries that I’ve blogged about during my trip.

For my visit to LA, I thought it would be a nice gesture to bring everyone some gifts from home- little things to remind them of the Philippines, of their childhood, and of home.
Because of safety regulations, we can’t bring just anything; bottled goods (like gourmet sardines, or coconut jam, etc) are totally out of the picture.  So are goods not packed very well.

In fact, your best bet, really is a pack of dried mango chips; if it ain’t packed like that, then it’s likely it wouldn’t make it past customs.  So I ended up bringing a whole lot of junk food.

• For my sister: I brought all kinds of snack foods she had as a kid, 15 years ago- chippy, chiz curls, pretzels, mallows, clover chips and tortillos.  I also brought her episodes of Heroes and Justice League Unlimited.
• For mom, I brought some of her childhood favorites: prima buttered toast, peanut cake, and a whole lot of old-school pinoy komiks.
• For dad, I brought some pinoy Christmas songs- some really old, classic stuff, along with a lot of dried mango chips and a nice barong tagalog.  I really would’ve wanted to bring him some san miguel pale pilsen, and some lapids chicharon, but I don’t think those things would get through.

Needless to say, they pretty much enjoyed it.  Which means I’ll be building up another care package for them soon enough.

Here’s something you might want to consider though: certain communities in the US (or pretty much anywhere else for that matter), have access to a lot of pinoy goods you would probably think,they wouldn’t have.

Take for example my folks’ neighborhood in Eagle Rock, CA- they have a mall (Macy’s, in fact) which has quite a bit of pinoy stuff- Jollibee, Chowking, Goldilocks, Bench, and a few other pinoy-oriented establishments.  Also within the neighborhood I’ve seen a Red Ribbon, a store that sells hot pan de sal, and a store that has all kinds of seafood, including tuyo (dried fish), tinapa (smoked fish), bagoong (shrimp paste) and other pinoy stuff.  Heck, mom even knows where to get balut and stuff.

So here’s the thing: If you want to bring (or send over) pasalubong for family and friends in the US, my advice, is to at least ask them for what they miss the most, and what exactly they can’t get from where they are.  The last thing you want to do, really, is bring packs of cashew nuts, only to find out they got tubs of that stuff in their shelves.

This is part Two of ten in the continuing coverage of my trip to the United States.  More to follow.  Part Three up ahead.  Cheers!

Renzie in LA. 19 Dec 2007: The Arrival.

I flew to Los Angeles to meet up with my family for the holidays.  The following is part of a series of entries that I’ve blogged about during my trip.  

Just flew in from Manila (via Narita, Japan) this morning. We touched down at LAX just nicely a little past 7AM. So here I am now, for the very first time, in Los Angeles.

In reality, it’s still pretty much late evening for me; while I may have left home (in Manila) at about 4am, my unadjusted timepiece says it’s 11pm-ish. Which suggests that, my trans-Pacific trip- including actual flight time, lining up at various queues in Manila, Narita and Los Angeles- has taken just about the whole day for me.

Had to adjust my watch one hour ahead at Narita, and another seven hours ahead at Los Angeles. I decided to keep the time on my mobile phone and laptop as is so I can pretty much keep track of time back in the Philippines.

My trip to LA this time (the very first time, in fact), however short, hopes to accomplish several things:

1. Probably most importantly, I’m here to spend time with Dad. He’s been diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer, which has unfortunately metastasised into his kidney, lower spine and other internal organs. Realistically he’s not going to last long, so we’re here to take care of him the best way we can. Pretty much keep him as pain-free as possible, spend time, hang out, stuff like that.
2. I haven’t seen my parents and my sister in 15 years. Naturally this is a great time to do some bonding, get to know them some more, basically renew family ties.
3. Consider the opportunities should we decide to move here. Gotta admit, by a long stretch, this place has got a lot over the Philippines. I’m here to consider options for settling down here, as well as options for business and employment.
4. Given number 3, my goal is to prepare myself for an eventual move to the US. Specifically, in my case, it means losing weight, picking up handy skills, and building my online empire.
5. On a lighter note, I’d like to get my hands on whatever Justice League Unlimited/ The Batman action figures we have available here, which is not available back at home.
6. Another quirky side-quest: try out local LA fare, but also have the chance to try out fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC, only to compare em with the stuff back home.

So pretty much it seems I got it all mapped out. Mom has set me up in a nice room at home, and Resa has hooked me up with some cold-weather clothes. I just finished handing out their care packages and little gifts from home. More coming up in the morning, after I catch up on some sleep.

This is part One of ten in the continuing coverage of my trip to the United States.  More to follow.  Part Two up ahead.  Cheers! 

Bachelor Living.

Sure, it’s daunting at first.  But living on your own is a very rewarding experience.  The Filipino culture of close-knit families aren’t very encouraging of people living on their own- at least compared to other societies which literally kick their kids out of the house by a certain age.

In the Philippines, living away from the traditional household is usually something out of necessity- like when students from the pro