Reviving this Blog after Two Years

It has been two years since my last post and a lot of things has happened in between!

Now, I am planning to revive this blog of mine and update it from time to time.

Since I started investing in mutual funds in 2007, I have slowly built my portfolio with the small earnings I have as a regular employee.

In 2009, I started dabbling in stocks through Citiseconline. I’ve had ups and downs but the experience is very rewarding. Profits were made and losses were taken in. It was a hands on learning experience.

That same year, I purchased my first piece of land on this earth! Haha! It’s nothing spectacular, but hey, land is still land.

In 2010, I mellowed a bit, and just added another MF in my portfolio. This time, Philequity. Then, remember in 2008, I was one of those people whose rural bank folded? Well, I filed claims in PDIC, and so far, I have received more than 75% of my total deposit. Though one has to be very patient, PDIC really does give your deposits back. Kudos!

Now, in 2011, I still do not know what’s in store. We’ll see.

Philippine Holidays 2009

As stated in Proclamation 1699, these are the holidays to be observed throughout the country for the year 2009. The national holiday for the observance of Fitr is yet to be announced.

A. Regular Holidays

April 6 – Araw ng Kagitingan (Monday nearest to April 9)
April 9 – Holy Thursday
April 10 – Good Friday
May 1 – Labor Day (Friday)
June 12 – Independence Day (Friday)
August 31 – National Heroes Day (Monday)
November 30 – Bonifacio Day (Monday)
December 25 – Christmas Day (Friday)
December 30 – Rizal Day
B. Special Non-Working Holidays

August 21 – Ninoy Aquino Day (Friday)
November 2 – Additional special (non-working) day (Monday)
December 24 – Additional special (non-working) day (Thursday)
December 31 – Last Day of the Year (Thursday)

Would you buy a $260,150 handbag?

Even if I have all the money in this world, I just know, I wouldn’t.

According to Forbes magazine, this handbag is the priciest of them all. (Well, at least, for now.)

Chanel’s “Diamond Forever” handbag is more like a collector’s item than a bag really. The C’s are peppered with 334 diamonds set in 18-k white gold. The alligator skin is matte-finished.

But man! $260,150? I could feed thousands with that kind of money.

Sunset in Calatagan

Let’s take a break.

Took this during one weekend in Calatagan, Batanggas. It was just great getting away from all the big city noise.

Pacquiao’s Paycheck

$7 million or 308 million pesos.

That’s how much money Manny the Pacman made after his fight with Antonio Barrera last Sunday. (Inquirer story here.)

Not bad for a day in the ring, eh?

I just hope he won’t hurt his body too much.

Men with deep voices father more babies

Now this one’s interesting…According to a recent study, men with deep toned voices tend to father more children than their high-pitched counterparts.

Coren Apicella, a Harvard University anthropology student, spent six months studying the Hadza, a nomadic hunter-gatherer population from Tanzania. For her, they were ideal because they “provide a window to our past.”

Hadza still sleep under the stars. Women gather berries and tubers while men hunt using the bow and the arrow. The Hadza are monogamous (but divorce rate are high) and they choose their own partners. They don’t use birth control methods either, so they are what we can call a natural fertility population.

The study was pretty simple. It involved collecting voice recordings of 49 men and 52 women between ages 18 to 55 from nine different camps. They were made to say “Hujambo”, meaning “hello” into a microphone.

Some analysis here, analysis there, and the conclusion (or maybe speculation?) was this. The reason why men with deep voices fathered more children is probably because they attract more women with their voice than their tenor counterpart.

Hmmm…

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Here’s the full article by BBC News.

Enough of the NBN Deal

As Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago put it, “it’s a squabble over kickbacks, a waste of time.”

Hay salamat. Somebody in the Senate finally said it. (Here’s Inquirer’s story.)

The NBN Deal brouhaha is taking up precious time from the Senate. They could have actually done something more useful with their time. I mean, the first hearing lasted until 9pm!

Personally, I don’t think we need this anyway. $329 million for a broadband network, exclusive for the government is way too much, don’t you think?

Subprime Lending Jitters

Wiki-what: Subprime lending.

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So my question is:

What will I do with my extra cash? Should I look for bargains or wait till the market stabilizes?

Suggestions? Anyone?

Philippines’ 40 Richest

This is old news. Forbes listed this December last year.  I’ll post this anyway. If only they could mentor me. Hmm….

Drumroll please….

1. Henry Sy
$4 billion
82. Married. 6 children.

2. Lucio Tan
$2.3 billion
72. Married. 6 children.

3. Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala
$2 billion
72. Married. 7 children.

4. Eduardo Cojuangco
$840 million
71. Married. 4 children.

5. George Ty
$830 million
74. Married. 5 children.

6. John Gokongwei Jr.
$700 million
80. Married. 6 children.

7. Tony Tan Caktiong
$575 million
53. Married. 3 children.

8. Andrew Tan
$480 million
57. Married. 4 children.

9. Emilio Yap
$350 million
81. Married.

10. Oscar Lopez
$315 million
76.
 

11. Enrique Razon Jr.
$285 million
46. Married. 2 children.

12. Andrew Gotianun
$280 million
78. Married. 4 children.

13. Enrique Aboitiz
$275 million
84. Married. 7 children.

14. Alfonso Yuchengco
$225 million
83.

15. Menardo Jimenez
$210 million
74.

15. Gilberto Duavit Jr.
$210 million

17. Ramon del Rosario Jr.
$205 million
62. Married. 4 children.

18. Felipe Gozon
$180 million

19. Beatrice Campos
$160 million
Widowed. 5 children.

20. Luis J.L. Virata
$150 million

21. David M. Consunji
$145 million
85. Married. 8 children.

21. Bienvenido R. Tantoco Sr.
$140 million

23. Betty Ang
$115 million

24. Manuel Villar
$110 million
57.

25. Mariano Tan
$100 million

26. Rolando & Rosalinda Hortaleza
$90 million

27. Oscar Hilado
$85 million
69. Married. 3 children.

28. Vivian Que Azcona
$80 million

29. Manuel Zamora
$75 million
66.

30. Magdaleno Albarracin Jr.
$73 million
70. Married. 1 child.

31. Jesus Tambunting
$70 million
69. Married. 4 children.

32. Frederick Dy
$65 million
51. Married. 3 children.

33. Tomas Alcantara
$60 million
60. Single.

34. Lourdes Montinola
$50 million
78.

35. Salvador Zamora
$45 million
59.

36. Antonio Roxas
$40 million
64.

37. Wilfred Steven Uytengsu Sr.
$38 million

79. Married. 3 children.

38. Philip T. Ang
$35 million

39. Marixi Prieto
$30 million
66. Married. 5 children.

40. Manuel Pangilinan
$25 million
60. Single.

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See the comprehensive list here.

Energy Saving: Rice Cooker vs. Microwave Oven

May I digress…

Our highschool batch yahoogroups discuss interesting topics in our threads. We have topics ranging from tuna chorizo to the effects of laptops on men’s fertility.

The “hot” topic today was cooking rice using the microwave.

Apparently, some of my friends have been nuking their rice and it struck me as amazing. Naturally, I “googled” around and saw some tips on how to do it. For my friends “technique” involves “microwaving” the rice at 5 minute intervals and stirring until done. Generally, they said, it takes them 14 to 15 minutes to cook their rice.

Now, I cook rice using the rice cooker. I prefer leaving it there while doing other stuff while I wait for it to be done. Now here comes my question:

Which of the two methods would be more energy efficient?

So, again, I “googled” around. I am lucky. Believe or not, four Indian scientists did a study comparing the energy consumption of cooking rice using the microwave, electric rice cooker, and the pressure cooker.

The title of the paper is “Energy consumption in microwave cooking of rice and its comparison with other domestic appliances“ and was authored by S. Lakshmi, A. Chakkaravarthi, R. Subramanian, , and Vasudeva Singh.

I didn’t have access to the full paper ( I’d have to buy it), but the abstract gave me what I needed to know.

Among the cooking appliances, the electric rice cooker was the most energy-efficient while the microwave had the least cooking time (15 – 22 min). Now, this one’s useful, right?

And oh, here’s the bit that interested me the most. Presoaking the rice will save us energy between 5 to 11%.

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Related to this here’s a blog by The Ethicurean.