Magazines

(Click the photo to zoom)

So i've been gone for just over a month and my mail box was actually flooded mostly by magazine subscriptions. Over the last six months. whenever i will get an offer for free magazine subscriptions and the magazine itself is of my interest, i would grab it and go a ahead with the subscription. The only paid subscriptions i have are the Men's Health and GC Magazine. My good friend Randy recommended me GC mag which i got for only $5 for 1 year subscription at amazon.com. The GC mag i think is a guide to spending more money as this mag would show the latest trend in men's fashion. I tell you those clothes and accessories weren't that cheap. Beginning July, I discontinued my subscription to Men's Health. Seriously, i barely read the magazine as i found it to have more advertisements that articles. The most subscriptions i have relate to travel magazines. I think i have 3-4 subscriptions to various travel mag. I am really fascinated with traveling and places. Time Magazine and Businessweek is the weekly one which keep me updated with the current issues in politics, economy, and business. Great magazines.Anyway, i got to go as i have all these to read before another issue arrive in my mailbox.

Random Stuff

It's nearly 3 days from now I will be flying back home...to the Philippines... I am really excited for this trip..however..i am feeling a little bit of pressure because i still have a lot of work to complete and finalize... I will dedicate my day tomorrow to catching up with work...

This week i went to Lens Crafter at Oak Brook mall to get a new prescription for my eye glasses and of course get a new frame. On my first visit, i underwent an eye examination and lens fitting. The doctor prescribed a weaker prescription from my curent one which i myself was surprised because i expect it to be fairly consistent from my current one. I picked up a new frame...I so like it..it's good that i have vision insurance and health spending so i was able to get a good frame from Burberry and paying just a co-pay portion...I saved as much as 80%. I got the new pair eyeglas same day however, i was disappointed with the prescription lens as my vision was not as clear as the old one. I tried using this new one for a day but i can't stand so i went back to Lens Crafter the following day and had my eyes re-checked by a another optalmologist. The doctor brought back my prescription closer to my old one and i was glad that they fixed my new eye glasses in an instant. I got couple of complements with this new pair of eye glasses...Maybe because it is Burberry...bwahahhaa

I had a dinner last night at Cafe Iberico in downtown Chicago. I so miss the tapas, paella and of course the Sangria so i tagged my friend who lives downtown and we headed to the restaurant. It was Friday night, the restaurant take no reservation so we have to wait like 40 mins just to be seated. It's worth waiting as all we ordered were all good stuff. For 2 of us, we had patatas bravas, gambas al ajillo (shrimp in garlic and olive oil), Lomo de buey a la brasas (beef tenderloin), paella iberica, and of course, a pitcher of red sangria.. i think what we ordered were just about right since tapas come in small servings. It was really good...i had fun. Though i had almost three-quarter pitcher of sangria, i still managed to drive and get home at 1 am.

I woke up pretty late this morning (saturday) so i missed my kwando class at Ballys. It was gloomy and chilly when i woke up so i felt so lazy to move around. My lunch was fried porkchop and side of stir fry veggies...it was good as i cooked it...hehehe.. late afternoon when i decided to go to Ballys and ran and walked for almost an hour. The feeling was good after every run. I headed to Macy's at Westfield Mall in Skokie, IL afterwards. I had to go there because i returned the pair of Armani Exchange (A/X) sunglass i bought online at Macys.com. Even though i really like the design, the brand and the price (as i got 25% off), i had to return it as it didn't fit me well (too bad) and it would be a waste of money if i keep it and just display in my room. Now it leaves me with no sunglasses for my trip...Seriously, i really find it hard to pick a pair of sunglass for myself. I have no eye on which sunglasses will fit to me well...it seems like none will fit to the shape of my face...it so hard to choose and i am always halfhearted whenever i buy a sunglass. I really need an expert advice on this matter..

Oh...really serious thing happened Friday. At 4pm in the afternoon, my land lady called me and told me that there was a report that our unit's gas (use for stove and dryer) is leaking. Our neighbor smelled that it was coming from our apartment. Good thing that my land lady is available and she went straight to my apartment as I can't since i am stuck at work. She called me later at night and told me what happen when she got to the unit. There were 3 fire trucks and neighbors went all outside to ensure safety. When the fire fighter got inside the apartment, they found that one of the stove was turned on, no fire, but at maximum range. It was all contained in our unit and good thing they got there on time and avoided catastrophe. I feel bad about the incident as I know i was the one who use the stove last night. I am not sure if my roomate used it in the morning as she got up early than me. As i tried to recall what happened the night before and the morning i left, i find it really odd that i could have left the stove on. As I said, i used it the night before and if that was the case since that time, my roomate and I would smell it overnight. We smell nothing like gas that morning. What even intrigue me is that morning, i prepared my box lunch beside the stove and i did not smell or notice anything wrong in the kitchen. I was at the kitchen close to the stove like 3-5 mins while preparing my sandwich so i don't understand why the stove could be up and running. It was really scary because i honestly believe that i should have smell the leaking gas overnight or in the morning if i left it up running the night i used it. Anyway, i don't want to spend a lot of time thinking how this happen, but this served as a reminder for me to check everything before leaving the house. I thank God for this blessing, no damage happened, but left me a good learning lesson. For all peeps out there also using gas for your stove, always , always check your stove before leaving the house...

It is now Sunday and I just wish everyone a Blessed Sunday.

Check out "I am Nomad" for ironwill20's travel adventures

Hey guys....since i am not running out of list of travel adventures, i decided to put all my plans and travel thoughts in another blogsite called "I am Nomad". This blogsite is purely containing travel plans for the next coming months and years...Travel plans include travel dates, flight options, itineraries and even estimates of the travel costs. This site is open to all my friends who would like to join me as i discover various places around the world. As much as possible, i'd like to travel in groups as i found it more fun and cheap and if you guys are interested in joining me in these adventures...reach out to me and we will plan according our interests. Let's use this site to share travel ideas and also discuss your travel plans. I could also give advice on your plan travel adventures in terms of flights, hotel and itinerary....my interest and hobby is to travel and i subscribed to bunch of travel magazines. When i plan a travel, big factor i consider is the travel cost so as much as possible i am shooting for a cheap travel cost with reasonable accomodations and travel dates. I usually choose 1-3 star hotel and even just regular inns when i booked my hotel. I could share room with 2-3 people. I am not that really particular in terms of the accomodation. Anyway...please visit the site and leave comment if you have any thoughts on any particular article i posted.

The Philippine CPA-Reciprocity Crabs

Note: I found this article online written by Angel Y. Dayan, PICPA President, Orange County, California Chapter, almost a year ago. I thought this article is really interesting for Filipino CPA's.
You'll find the original post in following link:
http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/3046/90/
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The Philippine CPA-Reciprocity Crabs

Last April, the accountancy boards of the countries of Mexico, Canada, Australia and Ireland renewed their five-year trilateral mutual-recognition agreements with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the National Association of State Boards Accountancy (NASBA). Mutual recognition means the CPAs of these countries are given reciprocal accounting practice rights in all the 50 U.S. States. This also means that U.S. CPAs can conduct equivalent practice in these foreign countries

As a Philippine-licensed CPA, I find this interesting and feel jealous about this reciprocal right of these few very countries. The Philippine Institute of CPAs, (PICPA), the only accountancy Board in our country, cannot forge with the United States such an agreement because we do not have a General Agreement on Tariff and Services (GATS) with it. One part of me feels outraged at our leaders who are so shortsighted when it comes to international business relations. The world as we know it is getting “flattened” everyday (no border or boundaries) as international commerce and global-business relations between and among countries continue to evolve.
It is not that PICPA-Philippines was unfamiliar with this reciprocal privilege right offered by the United StatesPhilippines in its long history happens to be a long-time friend of the United States but our country has not taken advantage of this potential opportunity for our CPAs to immigrate to the U.S.A. and be readily recognized and licensed as a U.S. CPA with very few requirements. to all deserving and friendly countries of the world. The

Several years ago, we started a movement in California to obtain a “mutual recognition agreement for Filipino CPAs. An initial but important step has been completed. We first solicited the formal endorsement of the members of the Board of the California State Board of Accountancy. A group of us numbering about 20 CPAs attended a Special Meeting of the California Board of Accountancy in a hotel in Santa Monica, Southern California. In its specific agenda was our request for endorsement to the International Qualification Examining Board (IQEX) that will evaluate the qualifications of Philippine CPAs to qualify for “mutual recognition.” Mexico has not yet been officially accepted into the program at that time.
After some favorable-and-friendly deliberation, the California Board of Accountancy unanimously voted and supported the Philippine CPAs on their qualifications that would meet the standards required, in education, in examination and experience. We were gladly accepted and were cordially endorsed with open arms to the program. In a show of support, the 20 of us CPAs stood proud and thankful before the illustrious members of the California Board of Accountancy that deliberated earlier at length our proposal and their acceptance of it. They were convinced that of all countries in the world, the Philippines should be a participant to the international-reciprocity program since we used American accounting textbooks in school. Besides, our educational curriculum was comparably the same with U.S. standards, and we give by far similar CPA examination subjects to CPA candidates to be licensed. And Filipino CPAs acquire the same formal-accounting experience from businesses operated in a free-enterprise capitalist democracy, unlike other countries that may not even be democratic. It was self-evident that we would be given an easy passing mark by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and they did. We were so excited at the time.

As we tried to meet further the rest of the formal requirements in the application process, we were informed subsequently that it would be important for our two countries (the Philippines and the United States) to have a trade agreement, or a proviso in international commerce or contract with the United States. The Philippines unfortunately did not have that and up to now we still do not have such an understanding.

We, therefore, made representations with the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry if such an agreement could be forged between the United States and the Philippines. Philippine organizations such as the PICPA, and the big CPA firms in the Philippines were requested to submit their position papers about, or endorsement of, this matter. A former PICPA Executive Director I spoke with personally in Los Angeles was agreeable to the idea. The big CPA firms in the Philippines resented it because of its “trade protectionist” policy.

The US CPAs were seen as the would-be big competitors in the CPA practice in the Philippines that might affect the practice of licensed Philippine CPA firms. Our efforts to national reciprocity fizzled out. The project is now dead.

Had we been successful, a Philippine CPA would only be required to hurdle a 5-hour examination (in lieu of the normal 16 hours of testing) to pass the U.S. CPA exams. After passing, a Philippine CPA would have been able to practice in any part of the United States of their choice, perhaps even immigrate as a professional under this program. An immigration law under a new category for accountants could have passed in the U S. Congress by now. All we need right was a GATS Agreement between our countries, the Philippines and the United States.
Have you watched crabs in a wicker basket lately? Yes, the big crabs that pulled us down are still in the basket but they are slow and older by now. The biggest one has been burned. I believe we should light up the torch again on this issue. There are just four (4) countries admitted into the program to date. The Philippines can be the 5th one if could align our forces and we value the economic benefits of global commerce. We are sending our professionals abroad anyway as overseas workers in order to sustain the homeland’s economy. Why the program can’t be given to the Philippine CPAs is hard to swallow. After all, the United States happens to be domicile of the world’s biggest concentration of Filipinos outside of the Philippines.

March Update

I know i have not been posting anything in my blog since February... i am just really busy with work...like terribly busy...since January 70% of my time is devoted to my work and i can't do anything about it. I am glad that things are getting slower and working hours are a little bit reduced but over-all, i still put more hours than with regular job. I can't help it but just keep going so i will not have a lot of backlog...but seriously...i am fed up with how my work consumed much of my time.... I am so envious to those having 7-8 hr a day job and they being able to do other things in their life...anyway....i don't need to run same sentiments again...but will just keep hanging on and hoping eventually my time will come and something better would happen in my work life. I believe on that.

So what to update besides work? well bunch of other things happened this month. The highlight would be the celebration of St Patrick's day with my chicago pexers friends. We are no Irish but here in the US especially in Chicago, it is a big thing. We held it in one of my friends' house in the west suburb of chicago in the village of Carpentersville. We had a potluck and food were all awesome but not really healthy. We had sisig, crispy pata, pinakbet. menudo, tilapia., and spaghetti...all were really good. My fave was the sisig...the last time i had it was when i was in the PH back in 2007. Anyway, we really had a great time, had a lot of boost, and really had gone wild on karaoke. It was really awesome fun especially when everyone became buzzy...

The following week, my long time plan of watching Saw movies happened. I watched them with pexers friends and had watched 3 parts (parts 3-5). In the beginning the movie seemed really creepy and too morbid but as we continue to pay attention on the story, we became more interesting on the plot and characters. To me Saw 4 really sucked and it did not really reveal much and the story is a little bit off. Saw 5 was really intense and made me think a lot on the mysteries. I'd definitely going to watch Saw 6 when it comes out.

How's my photography going? Well i feel bad that i have not been able to pay attention on this one lately...as mentioned I am uberly busy but my interest is still there and really excited to learn more stuff on this new thing. Cold weather still keep me indoor most of the time and there's really very few weekends were weather became mild and friendly. Now that spring has come, i would expect April would be a bit warm and would allow me to go out for walk much longer time. Speaking of which, though it is now officially Spring it will snow tomorrow like 1-3 inches... sucks....i am going to COSCO tomorrow to fill up my balikbayan box and it will make my shopping inconvenient.

Any new thing? Hmmm...i finally enrolled in a fitness center. Yeah...that's right, i am now paying attention to my health and fitness. I've been going to the club for a week now (3-4 times) and doing cardio for starter. It is really tiring sometimes but the feeling and how it improved my breathing afterwards makes me wanna comeback everyday if I have a chance. As a new member, i had a free session with a personal trainor just to help me guide how i could achieve my fitness goals. Well, one of my goals is to be fit, loss 10-15 lbs in 2 months and eventually work out to gain muscles. The free session i had, had been really intense and worn me out quickly that made me cut the training after 30 mins as I was about to pass out. I felt i was in a military camp being punished for mistakes I did. I wished the trainor considered very well my exercise history and having from a zero exercise jumped to an intense one would wear me out quickly. After the training, the trainor offered me a 24 session program and quoted $1,200 for the program. It is expensive...like really expensive. The trainor was making his best effort to make a sell of his program but after what i experienced with him... i don't think i would take him and go on with the training. I have a lot of reasons..basically it is expensive...especially at this time where we have no job stability. Second, he was not a good sales man...i don't feel a connection with him...i mean...he was not that encouraging at all so he did not build my trust on him....Finally...i am going for my Philippine trip so it is not worthy to get on with the program, then stop, blow myself up in the Philippines for delicious food, and then get back on the training starting from the scratch. Not really a good time for now. I've been reading also a fitness book which i learned a lot on fitness, diet and nutrition. As what they said, 80% of the weight loss program is attributed to a disciplined diet so I'll focus more on diet first and keep on working out on my own. As a matter of fact, i've been really good on my diet this week. I am actually doing a low-carb high protein diet which i read from the fitness book and which the trainor also mentioned. In this diet, you are only allowed to eat really small amount of food containing high carbohydrates (i.e. rice, beans, potato, carrots, corn, bread) and then eat more food rich in protein (lean meat, egg, fish, mussels). So this week i only eat 2 small cups of rice which was last Sunday and this lunch (saturday). The entire weekdays, i did not eat rice but had small slices of bread daily. My breakfast could be a small portion cereal with not fat milk or a yogurt, Typical lunch for me would be salad and dinner would be just meat with no carb at all. I am really excited with the result and after a week, i lost like 2.0 lbs already. This is really encouraging and I hoping resist from the temptation of unhealthy dishes in the next month and half.

Countdown to my Ph trip....wooo hoo... in 1.5 months i am going home!!! Really excited...and also worried because of the weather in the Ph...i am not adapted to hot and humid climate so that really worries me a lot. Last time i went home 2 yrs ago, i had a hard time coping with the weather and just stayed most of the time in air-conditioned places. Anyway....i know eventually my body will adapt so i should be okay...

Oh...one more thing..today (PH time) is my niece - Madison's baptismal. I felt bad that i was not there to see the happenings. The rest of my family can't get enough with this beautiful baby, She is just an adorable and lovely baby girl...i will definitely go for shopping of baby dresses......

Sorry if this became so long...i just want to catch up with the lost time. Ciao!!!

My New Thing...

It's been a while that I've been wanting to upgrade myself from a point and shoot digital camera to a digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR). I should have bought one before my europe trip, however, i was so worried that i may not have enough budget for the trip so i just decided not to and relied to my best ever loyal Sony Digital Camera W-55 for my europe trip. I thought i should just wait a little, save money first, and buy the thing...

It didn't really prevent me from buying the thing as just a month after my trip i clicked the "submit order" button and purchased my first ever DSLR. It took me days to decide which camera i will buy, read tons of guides and reviews, and talked to people who have experience in photography. It was really great that i met new friends in Chicagoland thread of the Pinoyexchange.com who are into photohgraphy and gave me advices in buying my first camera. These friends didn't actually tell me which model and unit to buy but gave me some tips and things to know that helped me decide as to the type of camera i will buy. I ended up buying the Canon Rebel XSi (450D) and Sigma lens 18-200mm OS.

I was really debating between couple of Nikon and Sony units but I guess at the end of the day, i found more and more people leaning towards getting the Canon Rebel XSi compared to the other models i was looking from the other manufacturers. I know that camera lenses are really expensive but i didn't realize that it is too expensive so i ended up taking a Sigma brand than a canon made one for my 18-200 mm lens which gave me nearly 30% savings. I read in the reviews that Sigma is at par with the canon one getting sigma with huge savings is a good deal.

Of course I was so excited trying out my new thing so this weekend, i went out with my pexers friends and went for a photos-shoot in downtown chicago. My friends brought tripods with them and i realized it's really really important to have one especially when taking pictures at night as it prevents the photo to turn out blurry. I might probably get one soon (ding ding ding cash out). At the end of the day, i realized i have to be patience in taking pictures and seriously learn the mechanics of photography, avoid being in the auto mode but have a full control of the equipment. That i think will help me learn faster. I really appreciate my friends who taught me the basic settings and gave me tips when taking picture. I wasn't expecting really really great image for my first few shots but i think the pictures i took were more than ok and inspired me to learn more about this new found hobby...

Here are the first few shots i've taken with my new camera.

Something to look forward to...

With the harsh winter weather and tiring long work hours, I often asked myself what am i still doing in this job?..Whenever January comes, I always wish time will quickly fly away to May....yeah...it's gonna be 4 months of long hours, pressure, mind torture and emotional battle. Battle against myself and testing if I could stand the day to day management of my engagements. I so look forward on Saturday nights and Sundays as my life in the last 6 days will take a break and will have some few moments of taking care of personal stuff. No matter what i do, i feel like weekends was just passing me by and in a blink of an eye...i've got to worry again with the work ahead. Good thing, i had a great time in Europe in December, I was travelling for 3 weeks, hanging out with old friends and experiencing the culture of 6 countries i visited. At least it gave me some break before the crunch season. This is something i do every year so i'd get some time off before January and would feel refresh...

Now that the season has just kicked in, i thought of planning for my next vacation once this whole dreaded months end. It helps me get motivated and feel excited whenever another day is over...it makes me see the fun ahead in the far horizon. It makes me look forward to an exciting life ahead. For this year, i've decided of going back to my home country....the Philippines...I can't tell how excited i am whenever i say , I am going to the Philippines.... there's a rush of excitement in my blood that flows to my heart and gave signal to my brain...i like the feeling and the excitement is growing as days go by. It's gonna be 2 yrs that I haven't been home and i am so looking forward to seeing my family and friends...Oh gee..i am so excited....I've already booked my flight just to make sure i'll get home...Flights are going so expensive if I waited too long to buy it. I've got a good deal with my flight and i believe it's the cheapest...i was supposed go for a 1300USD ticket...but found a package of 1100USD for a flight departing on May 13 and returning June 20. Yeah....May 13 is the big day....I will arrive in Manila the morning of the 15th Friday..whew..it makes me feel so excited even while i am writing this...memories kept coming back...exciting plans running in my head...what will i do for my 5-week vacation...for sure it's gonna be a blast... One thing for sure I'll do is a trip to HK-Macao. It's been years that my college best friends and I wanting to go for out-of-the-country trip and now it seemed like all of my friends could go so we started planning for the trip. I know HK is awesome...but i look forward more on the awesomeness and fun i will have for being with my best friends again...We are all be reunited and the feeling of being next to friends who really knew me well will bring sense of belongness in any place I am or whatever situation i am. Gee...excitement keeps growing....

I haven't seen my two older brothers and my sister for 2 yrs. My dad and my younger brother came in Chicago last year and spent 2 months with me...so it's been a year that i don't see these two. One month, or 1 yr,or 2 yrs....still i am so excited to see them and know how they've been personally in the time we haven't seen each other. My older brother got married last year and her wife gave birth last December to a baby girl who they named Madison. Madi is her nickname and is the first grandchild of my dad and of course first niece i have. I saw her pictures, watched her videos, and saw her whenever i go online and my brother would focus her in the webcam. I am sooo excited to see her and spend time with her...she is such an adorable baby....She makes me real excited.....

I know i have 5 weeks over there...for sure...in the next coming weeks... i will come up with other exciting plans....I am glad that even if these days are crazy for me...i have something BIG to look forward to and makes me soo excited....I thank God for all the things that happened to me...and thank Him for this wonderful and exciting plan...