In our country, majority of those with physical handicaps pretty much lose their mobility. They trust their families and primary caregivers to answer all their needs. If given the right resources, they could still regain some of their mobility and independence, however, there is not much here in terms of equipment, support, and even therapies.

In the United States, they are fortunate to have NMEDA. NMEDA stands for National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association. It is a non-profit trade association that specifically aims to help disabled people to get back on track by promoting safe driving and equipment for them.

NMEDA has set a standard for safety and they require all their member dealers to sell only the products that have met the standard safety requirements that were set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

They are non-profit and their members are required to adhere to the safety standards of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NMEDA dealers (members) are the ones who sell handicap vans and vehicle modifications for disabled people.

There are two kinds of dealers at NMEDA–the NMEDA Dealers and the NMEDA QAP or Quality Assurance Program dealers. An accredited dealer proudly wears its QAP seal because this program is the only accreditation program for the Adaptive Mobility Equipment Industry that is recognized nationally. It is not easy to earn the QAP approval. Dealers must have a systematic and documented approach to quality. Documentation is really important because no two handicapped people are the same. What may work for one may not work for another. Sometimes, having customized wheels can be good, however, all alterations should be documented in order that they may be deemed safe.

There NMEDA qualified dealers all over the United States. It is easy to check their website, as you just input your zip code and you get a list. Please do leave a comment here in my blog and mention the NMEDA dealer nearest you.

If only NMEDA is here in the Philippines, many more handicapped people will be given a new lease in life.

But I realized it is very hard to compare nutritional content of milk brands by reading the labels alone. And you cannot copy everything, as there are so many ingredients. When I look up online, only S26 Progress Gold has uploaded their nutritional content. So it is my desire to bring that service to parents who want to know what the other milk brands contain.

Some of the information listed here are taken from various sources: company website, MIMS Philippines, and some on the back labels of the milk brands that I copied one by one. So please pardon the typographical erros! lol

Nutritional Content: S26 Progress Gold for Children Ages 1-3 Years Old (per 100g/per serving) by Wyeth

Energy 450 kkal/kcal
Protein 14.5 g
Fat 15 g Vegetable Oils; Soy Lecithin, LCPUFAs: (AA 12 mg; DHA 8.1 mg)
Carbohydrate 64 g
Nucleotides 12 mg
Vitamin A 750 ug
Carotene 95 ug
LUTEIN 90 ug
Vitamin D 225 IU
Vitamin E 5.6 IU
Vitamin K 23 ug
Vitamin B1 405 ug
Vitamin B2 721 ug
Vitamin B6 450 ug
Vitamin B12 0.95 ug
Niacin 5180 ug
Folic Acid 83 ug
Pantothenic Acid 1351 ug
Biotin 9.0 ug
Vitamin C 54 mg
Calcium 450 mg
Phosphorus 360 mg
Magnesium 45 mg
Iron 5.6 mg
Zinc 4.5 mg
Copper 0.41 mg
Iodine 45 ug
Sodium 212 mg
Potassium 811 mg
Chloride 495 mg

Nutrition Information: Vitaminized Lactum 1+ (per 100g) by Mead Johnson

(Plain)
Fat 14 g
Linoleic acid 230 mg
Carbohydrate 64 g
Protein 15 g
Mineral ash 4.4 g
Water 2.6 g
Taurine 44 mg
Choline 38 mg
Iodine 56 mcg
Vit A 1,500 iu
Vit E 6 iu
Vit B6 540 mcg
Zn 7.5 mg
Vit D 330 iu
Niacin 6,500 mcg
Riboflavin 630 mcg
Ca 930 mg
Phosphorus 450 mg
Mg 56 mg
Manganese 530 mcg
Vit B12 0.91 mcg
Folic acid 35 mcg
Fe 9 mg
Vit K1 11 mcg
K 590 mg
Thiamine 450 mcg
Vit C 40 mg
Pantothenic acid 2,200 mcg
Biotin 13 mcg
Na 120 mg
Cl 330 mg
Copper 300 mcg
Linolenic acid 230 mg.
Energy: 442 kCal

(Chocolate)
Protein 15 g
Fat 14 g
Carbohydrate 64 g
Minerals (ash) 4.4 g
Water 2.6 g
Vit A 1,500 iu
Vit D 330 iu
Vit E 6 iu
Vit K1 11 mcg
Thiamine 450 mcg
Riboflavin 630 mcg
Vit B6 540 mcg
Vit B12 0.91 mcg
Niacin 6,500 mcg
Folic acid 35 mcg
Pantothenic acid 2,200 mcg
Biotin 13 mcg
Vit C 40 mg
Choline 38 mg
Ca 930 mg
Phosphorus 450 mg
Mg 56 mg
Na 120 mg
K 590 mg
Cl 330 mg
Iodine 56 mcg
Fe 9 mg
Zn 7.5 mg
Manganese 530 mg
Copper 350 mcg
Taurine 44 mg
Linoleic acid 230 mg
Energy: 440 kCal

Nutritional Content: Bonakid 1+ by Wyeth per 100g powder

Protein 13 g
Fat 15 g
Carbohydrate 66 g
Nucleotides 6.8 mg
Vit A 750 iu
Vit D 225 iu
Vit E 5.6 iu
Vit K 23 mcg
Vit B1 405 mcg
Vit B2 721 mcg
Vit B6 450 mcg
Vit B12 0.95 mcg
Niacin 5,180 mcg
Folic acid 23 mcg
Pantothenic acid 1,351 mcg
Biotin 9 mcg
Vit C 54 mg
Ca 450 mg
Phosphorus 360 mg
Mg 45 mg
Fe 5.6 mg
Zn 4.5 mg
Manganese 586 mcg
Copper 405 mcg
Iodine 86 mcg
Na 212 mg
K 676 mg
Cl 495 mg
Energy: 450 kCal.

)***********(

Nutritional Information: Frisogrow 3 by Wellcome Healthcare per 100g powder

Protein 22.1 g
Total fat 18.4 g
Linoleic acid 2240 mg
Alpha-linolenic acid 320 mg
Carbohydrates 51.8 g
Ca 890 mg
Phosphorus 740 mg
Fe 10 mg
Copper 280 mcg
Na 270 mg
K 930 mg
Cl 560 mg
Mg 90 mg
Zn 6 mg
Iodine 80 mcg
Manganese 1,000 mcg
Vit A 425 mcg-RE
Retinol 375 mcg-RE
?-carotene 300 mcg
Vit D3 8.1 mcg
Vit E 9.2 mg
Vit K1 22 mcg
Vit B1 725 mcg
Vit B2 960 mcg
Niacin 9.3 mg-NE
Vit B6 1,050 mcg
Folic acid 50 mcg
Pantothenic acid 3,100 mcg
Vit B12 2.4 mcg
Biotin 21 mcg
Vit C 115 mg
Taurine 40 mg
Choline 75 mg
Energy: 460 kCal.

To be continued…

Actually, last week, I could already get a whiff of the Christmas aroma. I don’t know about you, but I do smell Christmas. The air carries a different scent, like apples, presents, and whatever….but the fragrance of the air would remind me of Christmas.

Sometimes I get melancholic but I am also excited for Christmas. This year is my daughter’s second Christmas with us. Last year, she was 9 months old when Christmas came so we put up a small tree that her maternal grandmother (my nanay) bought, along with golden Christmas balls. Then we bought her several toys and wrapped them so that she had gifts to open on Christmas Day. Thankfully, a lot of people gave her gifts and so she had so many Christmas presents to open.

This year, I am planning to buy a Santa’s hat and Christmas stocking for her and the little boy who lives with us. Then we will hang up the Christmas stocking like a couple of days before Christmas day and tell her to wait for Christmas, as she will have something nice in there to see. I think we can do lots more things this year because she is already 1 year and 9 months old and can already appreciate more things around her.

So anyway, I just thought of coming up with a Christmas wish list for my small family.

For my daughter, I would like the following:

1. iPad because I like the applications for educational purposes.
2. Pink portable DVD player so that she can watch her videos without us having to sacrifice our laptops while she is having her video time. It has to be pink, because she is a girl and most of her stuff are pink. hihi
3. Money for her Manulife payment in February. Yeah, I would like to secure that budget by Christmastime.

For my husband:

1. An iPad, so that he will not be jealous if our daughter will have one.
2. 2TB hard drive
3. A house that we can call our own. It doesn’t have to be palatial. I really like this elegant two-storey that I found on the internet. OH well, this is my choice. haha

And for me:

1. A Botox injection, especially around my forehead. They say that Botox injections greatly minimizes the incidence of migraine attacks. Wow! That would be a great side effect! I don’t only get younger looking facial skin, I will not have migraine attacks. Great!
2. Diamond solitaire jewelry set–solo princess cut diamonds set in white gold. I just love diamonds! hihih
3. A baby boy! hihihi Not just another baby, but to be specific, a baby boy! I blot out the face in the picture because ours would look different. He will be specially made for us.

Well this is just a wishlist and I can certainly wish for anything, right? hihi

Well, we do not exactly have a real pool, but we do have a big inflatable pool that could fit my husband’s length even if he lies down at the bottom of the pool. Yeah, it is that big. We bought it because we wanted to be able to fit the three of us, and then maybe some, like another baby for us, and a guest kid. hehe Yup, that is forward thinking!

We bought that pool because we wanted our daughter to have something to look forward to doing on the weekends. She can say that we will go to Lolo and Lola’s house on a weekend of swimming fun! I want her to have great memories with her grandparents. And we will create them. hehe

Anyway, it would also be nice to have a real pool, like the ones made and maintained by anAustin Pool Builder. That would be great though here in the Philippines, that would really entail a lot of money. Only the upper class few have pools in their homes. All the rest go to public pools like the Palmas del Mar or the Sta. Fe Resort. Last time, we went to the Las Villas clubhouse pool. That is still fine though. No maintenance required.

Looking forward to a great weekend!

Anyway, when I was still working, it was the company that computed by tax payments as well as paid my taxes. And would you believe? It was even our clerk who filled out the forms. haha That is why when I would get my ITR and W2, it is all ready for filing. Oh I miss those times. And sometimes, I would get some tax refund, too.

I never did see and have never really written on the rest of the tax forms, such as the California Franchise Tax Form. And I am thankful that I haven’t. I am not too keen on doing administrative or office jobs and filling up forms is one of them. I also don’t like queuing in public utility offices the whole day just to wait for my transaction. That’s why I was really thankful because in the last three companies that I had been associated with, all of them had clerks that processed our tax returns, tax payments, and social security transactions. And they never missed a deadline! Whew!

Anyway, my brother got me a Sony Cybershot W330 from the US. We had been eyeing that online for several weeks and then when Mother’s Day 2010 came, the red Sony W330 became on sale. It came with a 2GB memory stick and a really nice red case. Eventually however, when it got to me here in Bacolod City, somehow, the case got lost.

But anyway, regarding the camera. It is lightweight and at first, I found myself getting clumsy handling it. I kinda feel awkward handling such a light camera. Eventually however I cozied up to it. One thing that I like about it is that it has a powerful flash that takes great pixes even at low light. The pixes will come out a bit grainy when blown up really big, but for my purposes, they are okay. Then it has a setting that allows the flash to illuminate objects in the background and make them brighter, without “burning” or “washing” the image in front. The details are all very clear. This is possible, however, as long as the subject is still.

We are still studying the nighttime settings, though, as we couldn’t seem to perfect it. But as long as everything is lighted, indoors or outdoors, daytime or nighttime, this cam can really take great pictures. And guess what? It only cost us around P7500 including case and memory stick. It is a good deal, considering that I got my Olympus for P10,000.

There are four colors available and I have the red one. I really like it.

And oh, this camera takes great homemade videos too. My Olympus only took VGA quality photos and they are really dark and grainy. But I really like the videos of the Sony W330. Not professional or HD, but just enough for its price and for us to have some good quality memories on video and on print.

But after three years of living here, I am thinking of having our bedroom renovated. The old wall paper is already peeling off. This was the original wall paper from my husband’s teenage years. Imagine that. But it doesn’t look too bad, it’s just that the blue motif of the room has turned into a sad tint of gray because of the faded blue wall paper.

We will have to save up for this though as this room needs more than just a repainting or the replacement of wall paper, whichever we decide. I think we will need newbedroom furniture. Some of the old furniture will do but I think we will need a new bed and I like what I saw at Scenic Furniture.com. They have thematic bedroom furniture and they offer my designs to choose from. Their furniture pieces are really unique. I only have one bedroom to fill and so it is not much. But I really like their comprehensive offerings.

Shucks! That means no work and leisure computer for my husband and daughter for that long. But anyway, since there is no choice in the matter, we just have to accept it.

My husband needed his files as well as our daughter’s videos and music and so he instructed the one who entertained him that he will bring an external hard drive in order to back up all the files, as he needs to use them. And of course, that would be fall back in case some idiot will inadvertently delete the files.

He had to borrow a hard drive as both our external drives are already full. Since it is a borrowed drive, he had to transfer and allocate some files. He was not able to finish everything by yesterday afternoon so he said he will go there this morning. When he went there around 9:30am, he was told that the unit was already shipped to Manila. Apparently, the one in-charge for the shipping did not ask if the unit is already okay for shipping.

I am not sure how they work in that office, but shouldn’t things be moved without asking?

Anyway, it really irks me because I know of many people whose computers were reformatted and the files were not backed up by inconsiderate computer technicians. They don’t have a care if you have how many millions of data worth in your hard drive, they reformat your computer with no mercy. That should be their social responsibility, to protect data. Isn’t this taught in computer schools as part of information technology ethics?

I really feel bad about this incident. Not only are we stuck with one laptop, all the educational videos of my daughter are there.

The only consolation that we have is that if the data files will not be moved when the unit will be returned to us. As such, the only thing that we can do now is to call MF Computer Solutions everyday to check if they have called the Manila Service Center about our unit. I was asking my husband, what guarantee do we have when in the local service center, the agents and technicians already bumbled in their job with just a few units? How much more the national service center with all the problematic computers in the whole Philippines being fixed there?

Gee. Let’s pray and see.

Here is here official announcement:

“want one? It’s easy!!!

just share this ALBUM on your wall and tell your friends why they should come and visit “CRAFTED FANTASIES” at the “25th NEGROS TRADE FAIR” at the ROCKWELL TENT in MAKATI on SEPT 8-12, 2010!!!

Don’t forget to tag my fan page so I can keep track (type @Crafted Fantasies to tag)

most number of comments on their post wins one of these lockets! (chain and pouch included)

THREE lockets to be given away!!!!

—->uhmmm… lex… there are four lockets in the picture… what about the other one?

me: I wouldn’t want one of the winners to have nothing to choose from. that wouldn’t feel like winning! hahaha

first place gets first pick.”

Here is the Crafted Fantasies Facebook page.

Official poster.

The poker table is an essential part of a poker game. It sets the mood. There is no use of having an elegant poker set if your poker table is just some old table you have at home. If you want to start a tournament among your buddies, then you should start by getting a custom poker table. This will instantly add a sense of professionalism to your game. Even if you will just play in your living room, you will feel elegant if you are playing on a nice poker table. Your friends will surely appreciate it.

As mentioned earlier, you can easily get a custom poker table online. Ordering is easy. You just need to have your credit card ready. And if you think these tables cost an arm and a leg, think again. For sure, you can find one that is right for your budget. Most sellers will even ship the table to your house. These tables come in different designs and makes. Be sure to get one that would blend in nicely with the other furniture in your house.

The same is true with emails. I get really cute emails and I wonder how they do that. Then I learned that with free web-based mails like gmail (Google mail), yahoo mail, and hotmail, you can actually set the template. Like in yahoo mail, you get avatars and the like. Even if one uses Outlook Express, there are still outlook email templates.

Golly gee, I don’t have the time to figure out all these things. Just like my cellphone, I use my email to send and receive messages. They look kind of nice, but I don’t like sitting here reading the how-tos in installing these themes. And when something goes awry I panic. Oh well, I am already happy with the default settings of my e-mail. hehe

But you know, I found an earlier photo of Venus Raj and a photo after she won Bb. Pilipinas Universe 2010. She looks so much different. But I can’t point out how? The cheekbones? The nose? Whatever she did to her face, thankfully, she looks so much better. More regal and more unique.