Zinkerbell Celebrates the 28th!

Birthdays make up for great celebrations. And yes, its a great occasion to blog about.

So, here are BBK's special highlights:

(These are supposedly pictures but for privacy's sake, I can't post them awesome pics here.) 

So I'll just settle for this:

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made.
- Robert Browning

Happy, happy bday to the most special someone in my existence!

**for 91309

Getting a Driver's License in Cebu LTO

Unawesome. That's how my day went at LTO Cebu to get a new non-professional driver's license. Having filed a much challenging leave from my work, I went there past 9am only to be told by the guard that they can't accept any more applicants because their morning allocation of 20 people are already full. So I inquired if I could wait for the 2nd batch which is from 12.30-1.30 and he said, it's already full as well. I should have gone earlier at 6 or 7am maybe. Well, aside from wishing they could have allocated more applicants daily, I wouldn't have mind going there earlier- HAD I KNOWN THEIR SCHEDULE beforehand. 

See, I've done my research well (that's how I'm paid-researching), on the needed requirements when getting a driver's license but there was no warning about a certain time and the certain people that they will accept within a day. Once again, this is very typical of a government agency, eh? And this is just the start of today's unawesomeness, actually. Wonder about the differences in the real fees and those with the fixers'? I'll give you insights next post. 

As for now, good night Netizens!

It’s Not Too Late to Change Your Habits

Post written by Leo Babauta.

A (slightly) older reader wrote to me recently, wanting to know how to change her bad habits ingrained after so many many years of doing them. She wanted to know, “Is it too late to change?”

And I can understand the feeling. Doing bad habits for years makes them deeply entrenched, and getting out of that trench might seem impossible, hopeless.

I once was stuck, and felt the weight of built up bad habits crushing, smothering, burying me. I felt helpless, like I had no control over myself, and was too discouraged to even try to change.

This discouragement is what does it. It’s not that changing bad habits is impossible. But if we are so discouraged we don’t try, we will never change them. To try and to fail is of little consequence, but to never start at all is fatal to the habit change.

And I’m here to tell you, that changing bad habits is not impossible. No matter how long you’ve done them, no matter how many decades.

It can be done. By you. By taking a single step.

Here’s how.

Know as you start that you aren’t changing a mountain. You don’t have to change years of bad actions. Those actions are gone — they’ve evaporated into the ether, and you can forget them. Forgive yourself for them, then forget them.

You don’t need to run a marathon to change a habit. You just need to take a step. And you can take a step.

Consider for a moment your bad habit. You might have a dozen, but choose an easy one. Not the one you’re most afraid of — the one you think you can lick.

Take a step back and think about this habit. When do you do it? What things trigger the habit — stress, food, drinking, socializing, boredom, sadness, waking, being criticized? What need does the habit fulfill for you? Know that it does fulfill a real need, and that’s why you keep doing it.

Realize something — stop here to drive home for yourself a crucial, crucial point: you must realize that you don’t need this habit to fulfill this need. You don’t need the habit. You can deal with stress in healthier ways. You can beat boredom. You can cope. You do not need the habit, and you will learn better ones with practice.

You might be feeling a bit overwhelmed at this point, but you’ve done the hardest part. Now you just need to take one more little step.

Commit to yourself to make a small tiny insignificant but powerful step each day. Commit fully, not half-assed. Commit by writing it down, and putting it up on your wall. Commit by telling a friend about it, and asking for help. Commit by putting it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, your blog, a forum you frequent. Be all in.

Find a replacement habit. One that is healthier. One that fulfills the need. One that is easy. One that you can do after your trigger, instead of your bad habit. One that you enjoy and will look forward to. If you need to relieve stress, for example, consider walking, or pushups, or deep breathing, or self-massage.

You’re now ready to climb out of your trench. Remember, just a tiny tiny step.

Notice your urge to do the habit. Pause. Don’t do the bad habit. Let the urge pass, then do your new replacement habit.

Repeat, noticing the urge, letting the urge pass, not doing the bad habit, doing the good habit instead. You might mess up, but that’s OK. You’ll get better with practice.

Practice as often as you can, every day. You’ll get really good at it. Don’t worry about how long it takes. Keep doing it, one urge at a time.

Know, Consider, Realize, Commit, Find, Notice, Repeat, Practice. These are easy steps that don’t take a lot of work. You can do them as you sit here, reading this post.

It’s never too late. There is no habit that can’t be broken by the pressure of a single footprint. Make that footprint by taking a single step, today.

***Zen Habits is one of the awesomest blogs that has inspired me to be a better person all the time. Thought it may make a difference to your life, too.

Transferring a Blog to Another Gmail Account

I was figuring a way to transfer my current Google account to another, and so I consulted the ever reliable Google search engine. Well, I could have used Bing or Yahoo as well, but I'm very much used to Google that it was second nature to me when researching for the needed answer to my dilemma. Well, it is very useful when looking for anything, actually. By keying in: how to transfer blog to another gmail account, I found this:

http://stramaxon.blogspot.com/2012/03/transfer-blog-from-one-account-to.html

and I found it very easy to understand especially with the illustrations. I hope this will help others out there as well, when you feel that your existing blog will have to transfer to a new account. Good luck!

And to Deepak Kamat, a big thank you to you!

Personal Finance Blogs and Resources

Putting money in a mutual fund can really be exciting especially to regular employees like me. It provides a certain rush each time I looked at the NAVPS from the previous day and it creates a wonderful feeling when I compute how much profit I get from my shares. Wonder why? 

Here are investment and finance resources that has inspired me to keep the dreams burning:

Investor Juan

Bloomberg

Yahoo Finance

Google Finance

Spend some time with them and who knows they might change your life as did mine.