The other day, my husband was contemplating getting a health insurance with him as the main beneficiary. He said that a guy he used to know is now representing Caritas and they got to talking about the coverage.

Anyway, he has been thinking about such because of the nice benefits, like those working in call centers who mostly have health coverage. But we know that with call centers, it is the company that is paying for the policy and not the employees. So that is a good thing.

In our case, it would just be us who will pay for the insurance premiums. We are just wondering though because I already have mine with Philam, but my husband is not covered. It is a small policy that is limited.

Though we are not really all enthusiastic about going to hospitals and looking at nurses uniforms, let’s face it that we would need medical services every now and then. And since medical fees can be pretty steep, it would also be good to have coverage like this.

Sometimes, it is one good thing if you are employed–health insurance is part of your benefit as long as you are connected with the company. For freelancers like us, we will have to pay for our own.

Bears and other wild animals hibernate or sleep during the cold months and then they just wake up for springtime! They really know better.

Sometimes you would wish that humans can do the same and not have get up in the morning, prepare breakfast, shovel the driveway, and go through the snow in order to go to work. But life is just like that and we have to live with it. Or we can follow the animals and live like Tarzan in the jungle. That is also possible.

But in order to get just a sampling of the comfort that the animals have during hibernation, we have to keep ourselves warm at night. We could do this by having a heated mattress pad and a cap over our heads as well sleep. You do not want to catch a head cold you know.

Ahhh..if only we can sleep tight that long huh?

When I was still working at a cable company in the past, I was very happy to collect pins that were distributed to us as corporate giveaways from cable companies. I really had a special place for them and they really looked cool as a collection.

But now, since I no longer work for the company, all I get are personalized pins. That is fine, though some of the pins that I got already tarnished or have rust on them. I guess they were just made locally and were not produced from stainless steel materials. Oh well, but they just look nice, especially when they are given as tokens during a birthday party.

Right now, I am in the process of preparing for Dindin’s third birthday. But I think it will just be a simple. So I am still debating if I will give out tokens or not. hehe We will see.

Perhaps the items that are really sought-after during sales are gadgets, especially laptops. That is because a lot of people want or need them (depending on the situation), but of course we know that they buying them can really make a dent on our pockets.

Like when we hear a slogan that says “laptops on sale“, we will most likely respond to it with such enthusiasm.

Take my husband for instance. Last year, it was announced that makers of popular laptop brands will be having a great year-ender sale that will bring costs to about 50%. Or was that 70%? Needless to say, my husband experienced palpitations because of it.

But of course, he was not able to go there because the gadgets sale was only held in Manila and we live in the province where it takes one plane ride to go there. The discounts that he will get will just go to the travel expense.

Too bad though, if I can just afford it, I really would like to get him a new laptop again because his old one broke down and is attached to the TV now. And well, my daughter is now hogging its use. He could really use a another unit. So I hope that there will be laptops on sale here in Bacolod soon.

It seems that companies today are vying for the superlatives in their new products. It is either the smallest, the lightest, the biggest, the fastest, or the most loaded gadgets.

And now, we have the thinnest laptop from Acer. Last Sunday, the Taiwanese computer company unveiled the world’s thinnest laptop computer as part of an array of “ultrabook” rivals. The new product will debut this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The company will be shipping the new line called the Acer Aspire S5 models in the second quarter of 2012. Prices are yet to be disclosed.

Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies said, “That S5 is quite significant. It looks like the thinnest and lightest, and it sets the bar for the rest of the ultrabook vendors.”

Acer Aspire S5 Specs:

The Aspire S5 has a 34-cm (13.3-inch) screen and is 15 mm at its thickest point. The ultrabook weighs slightly less than 1.35 kg (three pounds).

Aspire S5 will have the Windows 8 operating system and so it is not really considered as a direct threat to the MacBook Air laptops.

While this is a nice development, my concern with a laptop so light is that, I may just bring harm to it. LOL But I think that the Acer Aspire S5 is something to check out.

Choose your car wisely so that you will get good value for your money.

If you are part of the working middle class, there is always the question of buying a used car or a brand new car. You can afford the auto but you do not have a lot of extra money. You may driving a used renault megane because you know you can’t afford a brand new one.

So what is it? A used car or a brand new car?

Here are some tips.

1. First off, you have to decide how much money you can allocate for the buying of a car. How much are you willing to spend without experiencing financial difficulty.

2. What kind of vehicle do you like? Automatic or stick shift? Gas or diesel? Will it meet your needs (e.g. business, family, lifestyle, location, etc.)

3. Check out the prices of the brand new version and you may also see consult a free used car prices guide. Compare prices. Sometimes, you can get a second hand car at a good rate.

4. If it is a used car, consider the rehabilitation procedures that it will have to undergo and compute the expenses.

5. New cars will have you paying larger amounts for the car insurance in some countries, but in other countries, the older cars would require more insurance premiums. So it depends on where you are.

6. Sometimes, buying a brand new car and a one-year-old used car does not make much difference in appearance and function. But it greatly differs in price. So in some cases, the used car would be more practical.

7. Ask around if the vehicle is a fuel guzzler or not. That will really help you decide what to choose.

Hope these car buying tips help you.

A lot of people are into outdoor activities like biking not only for the physical exercise that they get but also for the camaraderie. For them, it is just so fun to go out, hit the trail, inhale fresh air, and just enjoy the natural scenery.

But sometimes, the bike trails are not near the city and it is not safe to get there on a bike. So what enthusiasts do is they load their bikes onto their cars and drive to an assembly point where they meet other bikers.

In order to do this, they should have a kuat bike rack on top of their vehicles so that they can secure their previous mountain bikes there.

Just as their bicycles work hard on the road, their bike racks should also be heavy duty, as these are exposed to the elements during travel. Kuat is a good brand to have.

There are people I know who do not like having life insurance. They feel that it is a waste of money, after all, they will not be the ones who will benefit from it but the next generation.

However, I think that is being responsible for our children. Whatever we can afford now, it would be good to stash some money for them in the future.

And there are also life insurance policies that allow you to have some retirement money when you reach a certain age and still give your family some coverage whenever something happens to you. That is a great deal of benefit for you and your family.

So if you do not yet have a life coverage to your name, you might want to check out insurance quotes online. Or you might want to visit this site and compare here for your real-time quotes. You might find a cheap quote for you, based on your age and health condition.

Do get a cheap life insurance quote from a reputable company today.

Class ring designs

At that time, I was already receiving allowance from my work and I am happy that the design class ring I have was bought from the money I have earned. Of course, I paid for it in installment. It was only either P4000 or P5000 at that time.

Today, I learned that men’s class rings already cost around P30,000! I am like what? That is how expensive class rings have become? I shudder at the thought of how much it will cost when it is time for Dindin to graduate from college! LOL

Vans sneakers

Van Doren co-founded the company Vans with his brother Paul, his long-time friend Gordon Lee and their partner Serge Delia. It was started in in Anaheim, California in 1966.

A quote from the company’s website:

“Jim Van Doren will always be remembered by Vans as a great innovator and the mechanical mind that joined with brother Paul’s retail acumen and Gordy’s shoe manufacturing expertise to take Vans from that single store to national prominence and setting the stage for the global brand that Vans is today,” the company said.

Thousands of men in America lug around leather briefcases because it is part of their job. They need something presentable that can carry most of their documents and some other small stuff.

But instead of just bringing a portfolio, they bring leather briefcases because they are more presentable that these present a decent and more dignified corporate look.

Good quality leather briefcases made by trusted manufacturers for a last long. But of course, there will get to a time when you need a change because there is a chip or a nasty stain that would not come off. Or you might want another one in a different color.

Then it would do you good to join the rush during the coming Black Friday Sale 2011. You will really get great discounts on leather briefcases during that time. So along with the other things you need, write down “briefcase” now on your shopping list before you forget and get overwhelmed with the many items up for sale.

When is Black Friday 2011?

Black Friday is the Friday after the entire America celebrates Thanksgiving Day (which is a Thursday). Thanksgiving happens every fourth Thursday of November and this year, Black Friday falls on November 25, 2011.

Aside from being our favorite pancit canton brand, I really appreciate the management of Lucky Me for choosing to promote good values and principles in their ad campaigns.

Some of their ad concepts are promoting family togetherness, the importance of communication in the family, parental support, and the like. I love it! They are really making use of the mass media not only to promote their products but also to speak good values into the minds and subconscious of Filipinos.

Last times, my husband and I were driving along Lacson Street and we noticed the billboard of RCBC. It simply said, “Love and Respect your Parents” then it had the logo and slogan of the bank. And we were just happy to see that.

I mean if companies are willing to pay for the creative work of ad agencies and then the ad placements, which are in millions of pesos, by the way, why not use that money to promote good values? That would be a big contribution to the betterment of society because they are employing the mass media.

If only the companies will think about this.