uGoGirlFriday

In preparation of my speech in front of more than 1000 high-school and college students, I attended a Toastmasters club meeting yesterday. For those who do not know, Toastmasters is a non-profit organization developing public speaking and leadership skills through practice and feedback in local clubs since 1924.

I have observed two Toastmasters gathering in the past but yesterday was the best one yet. Not only were the speakers and facilitators great, the equipment they use during the club meeting were all high end – you can tell from the laptop’s functionality that its specs, such as the ddr and video card, are really top of the line.

Anyhow, what I really like best about the club is that, it does not only teach you how to speak well (there are a lot of training schools and programs for that), it also provides immediate evaluation of the speaker. In fact, this is the only organization that provides instant feedback. They even designate an ah counter (one who keeps count of those who use fillers like ummm and ahs), a timer (one who ensures that each speaker does not exceed the recommended time for each type of speech), a gems and germs hunter (one who finds grammatical errors and great quotations during the club meeting), and a general evaluator per meeting!

What’s really great about it is that you learn how to give feedback or evaluate in a manner wherein you are adding to the self-worth of the person you are evaluating. As you know, giving feedback, or pointing out rooms for improvement that will be readily embraced by the recipient is never easy. In fact, it’s an art that you do not master overnight. Here are three tips on giving feedback which I noted down from the meeting that I’d like to share with you:

1. Believe the person has a potential to improve.
2. Forget yourself, be there for the speaker.
3. Manage your words massively; watch your language.

Once you’ve applied those when evaluating, then you can be sure to be able to provide a helpful feedback – one that facilitates excellence.

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For most people, washing their face daily is enough. Then again, they are forgetting that during the day, a lot of factors cause damage to the skin which causes wrinkles, dry skin, and even dark spots. What’s worse is that the harmful UV rays of the sun can have drastic effects on the skin even leading to skin cancer.

To ensure that your skin avoids these horrible state, day creams were invented. Unlike night creams, day creams are often much lighter and allow your skin to breathe. Moreover, with powerful anti-aging ingredients, a good day cream will help fight and reverse the signs of aging on your skin.

When choosing a day cream, do make sure that it has the right amount of SPF to avoid dark spots and it should have UV filters. As for me, I prefer Nivea’s Sensitive Balance Protecting Day Cream since my skin is quite sensitive. It also helps improve my skin’s natural resistance to everyday external stresses.

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My college friend Hazel got accepted on a two-year scholarship in The Netherlands and she’ll be going there on August 18. As a farewell party for her, my other college friends and I decided to hold it on our rooftop since it’s spacious, the view is great, and it’s near everyone’s place.

The only problem is that we do not have lightings installed on the rooftop yet. Thank God I saw an outdoor lighting sale at the mall yesterday. Not only are they selling the lighting at half the price, the designs are gorgeous!

Anyhow, I found out that one of our batch mates, Twyla, will be leaving for her masterals in UK next year. Hmmmm… makes me think twice about getting a masters degree as well, this time in Belgium… It would actually be great if we could all have a mini reunion somewhere in Europe. Hehehe. Then again, I really prefer Japan… Oh well, there’s still plenty of time to decide on that. Meantime, I’ll do the preparations for Hazel’s going away party.

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Our dog, Anansi (as in from Neil Gaiman’s “Anansi Boys”), recently gave birth to five, cute and cuddly puppies (yep, our dog’s a girl). As much as we’d like to keep all of them, there aren’t enough pet beds, let alone space, in our house to accommodate the puppies.

It’s hard to decide which puppy stays and which goes. But since we already have enough female dogs in the house, my dad said we’ll just retain the two male puppies and give away the rest. I hope the other three gets to have owners that will treat them well, if not love them.

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What do you know, my panic attack last June 29 on the upcoming wedding of JC & Hiroko, was unnecessary. I just needed enough sleep and rest.

I ranked 2nd runner up in the wedding entourage participants according to my PA at that time. Hehehe. Not bad for someone who got sick. And I did feel pretty. ^_^ The bridesmaid pink and black gown suits me. It had that unusual girlish-goth effect.

Come to think of it, life’s funny. While the rest of my friends who attended the wedding are seeking for the best weight loss supplements to trim down to fit in their gowns, I’m doing my best to eat a lot and glow to fill up to my gown. I’m just glad I’m not on their shoe. It’s definitely more fun feeding yourself than depriving yourself dontcha think? 0;)

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I often get email offers on no exam life insurance. I wonder how they could offer insurance without even checking up their client’s health. But then again, a large number of reputable companies are offering this too although more expensive than their regular insurance packages.

I have been thinking of getting additional insurance because of what happened to a friend of mine. She was confined to a hospital last week because of pneumonia and she just relied on health insurance to cover the expenses. Unfortunately, her insurance company denied the request of the hospital to pay all the bills. It had something to do with pre-existing conditions which were not clearly specified. This made me consider getting an insurance package that requires no exam, meaning all the pre existing conditions will be waived. This could be a great advantage for me.

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Who would ever think that I could be so creative? I made a cake made of disposable diapers! Yeah yeah, so I copied the design from a mall, so what? ^_^

I bought a bunch of diapers, layered them like a cake and wrapped them in baby clothes. Then I tied some ribbons around and put a baby bottle in the middle to look as a candle. I also included some rattles and other baby accessories to give it some color. Voila, Diaper cake!

I made this for a good friend of mine who’s about to give birth to her first child. There’s supposed to be a surprise party for her month old baby girl but I slipped my tongue earlier when we talked in the phone. Oh well… I think the party will still be fun. I invited our other friends to tag along to give her baby a happy month anniversary. I’m so excited!

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A friend of mine called me up in the middle of the night just to brag about the excitement in their Vegas vacations. Their company gave them that incentive for being the top producers of the year. When she called (about past two in the morning), she was almost screaming with joy. “Amazing, this is a dream I don’t want to wake up from” she said. She said that she really wished I came with her to see the great clubs they went to. Of course I was flattered to hear that but I was too sleepy to react.

When I checked my mail this morning, I was surprised to see a lot of emails from her. I almost fainted when I saw the picture of the club she was in. Naked men and women was all I could see. Hahaha. Now I get it why she said she wished that I was with her. She just wants a wing man.

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