To LOVE or NOT to LOVE

Love is never an easy topic.  For a subject, it is the one where almost all people have their own explanation, beliefs, and ideas. I will try to combine two contradicting points of view in this post.

In the catholic Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love is simple. It will only be difficult when challenged with circumstances such as pain, envy, anger, distrust, and other forms of unwanted feelings.

According to Christina Grimmie’s song, How to Love, suffering can lead to a dilemma on how to be affectionate again to other people.

It is typical for human beings to activate defenses when pained or attacked. With emotions, the idea is the same, we tend to remember previous sufferings and use that as a pattern to automatically ward off possible threats.  Loving another person would be difficult if you have suffered so much from your previous relationship. Gaining trust is a difficult task, unless your mind and heart are free.

There are some that can will their minds to make their emotions follow. Most of us, on the other hand, are subdued with our emotions even before the rational mind realizes what is going on.

Love is not for everyone

There are also some who does not believe in love from the beginning or stopped believing in it. Individuals who never felt love from their early age of life tend to neglect the idea of love.  They usually avoid people in their lives since trust is not part of their life.  It does not mean they are nice people, it is just they just want to center themselves in life.

Some individuals are also numbed with pain that they tend to disregard the mistake.  It is not that the other is forgiven, but on a negative side the person is now indifferent towards the other.  Love, in this case, is lost.

People who can accept

Usually, people who knows how to provide unconditional love are our parents.  Regardless how many times you have wronged them, you’re still treated the same way you were treated when you were a kid.  Our parents are the ones who will always be there for us no matter what.

People who has more experience with ups and downs tend to know better on how to will their mind on forgiving those who suffered them, since they can identify and separate the wrong actions from the wrong-doer. Maturity comes with age and experience.

This kind of love, the one with acceptance is the ideal kind of love that we all must strive to achieve.  It may not be easy, but in loving unconditionally, we should accept the we love, flaws and all.

Real Estate Cheerleaders!

Cheerleading, for me, is about the stunts. It’s the synchronized movement with the music, whatever the music may be; the dynamic stunts; the rush, the feel of boundless energy. This is what captivates the audience.

What does it take to make the cut? It’s not by sheer will, but by constant self-discipline. “Will” is “the faculty by which a person decides on and initiates action,” but that isn’t a guarantee you’ll persevere. “Discipline” is to “train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way,” and once it’s a habit, it becomes too easy that you sometimes do it so effortlessly that you barely notice the action is already done.

Now the fun part: let’s talk about the uniforms, music, girls!… and guys. Those are marketing strategies: the team tries to “sell” their stunts to the audience. The uniforms and music are added factors. The upbeat music is matched with the stunts that they do. Sometimes, the music isn’t the most upbeat one out there, or the uniforms are a bit tacky, but that’s not what the audience is clamoring for. The audience is there for the stunts: stunts that took time, effort, discipline to master; stunts that, when executed properly, would make you think how that move was even possible and command you to go stand up on your feet and shout “whoa!” and “wooo!”

If you want to join but you’re thinking that the market is already saturated and the possibility of winning is slim, then you’re not thinking big. You can make the local competition your strength. Compete in small groups first then work your way to the major league. If you have no qualms jumping straight to the major league, go ahead! Just make sure you gave enough time and effort to improve the chance of winning.

Let’s try to understand real estate by putting their similarities side by side using the points mentioned in cheerleading.

The selling point in cheerleading is the stunts. Try to think of that as the property being sold or rented; that’s the basic commodity. The added amenities, same as the catchy uniforms, are a plus and can be a playing factor, but the property itself is the highlight. It takes time, effort, and expenses to maintain a good property, but if well-maintained, becomes worth it.

The real estate business has its highs and lows. Notice the tempo beat? It slows down then gets aggressive again, and the cheerleaders must be able to follow that pace. To survive in real estate, you must know how to go with the flow, survive the ebbs and brace the waves.

The real estate business is always saturated, there’s no lack of land, but try to find strengths in your local area, or if bold enough, even out of your geographical location.

If you want to jump in the real estate bandwagon, you must have the discipline for it. You won’t survive through will alone. Remember that nothing worth having comes easy.

Ref: https://soundcloud.com/djl-cheer-music-services/nu-team-pilipinas-2015-icu-world-cheerleading-championships

I switched!

I am Oreo Molina. I am twenty-four years old, and I switched!

My parents are the ideal couple that you will look up to and would make you think that there is someone out there for you – someone that will be with you for the rest of your life, someone who will do anything even if it is beyond their limit.

When I was a kid, I could not understand what the meaning of love is, other than the love in my family.  There would be stories about romantic love, but I just could not make sense out of it nor see the need for it.  Why would you need someone else to love you when you are deeply loved by your family?

Fast-forward to puberty, I started to fall in love when I was in third year high school.  She is the type of girl that any decent guy would want.  She has this porcelain-like skin, hair black as night, almond-shaped eyes.  “She is the one,” I told my self.  A month or two of courtship, Jessie and I became an official couple in campus.  Graduation came, both of us committed to each other that college will soon be finished and we can continue being together.

She moved to Cebu with her family and I remained in Las Pinas.  When she broke the news to me that her family is moving because her father had been relocated for work, I was devastated. With her assurance that we can still make it work, we pledged to be loyal to each other and once we start working ourselves, either one would move to where the other one is.

Both of us took Molecular Biology as our degree and kept in touch most of time through long distance calls.  We talked about new things we both learned from our course. We also talked about restaurants and places we have been to, among other things. Our talks would last throughout the night.

Two years passed, she became cold and unresponsive.  I tried contacting her, but she’s always busy.  I tried to be patient and understanding, but I just felt left behind. Seeing her Instagram and Twitter posts made me realize that she’s gone, gone with some other guy from Cebu. No words were said – there was no official end to our relationship.

One year passed and I jumped from one relationship to another.  I felt nothing, merely passing time and just having someone to be with. That was me, until I met Joey.

Joey was different.  We started hanging out as buddies, volunteering for social work in Gawad Kalinga, joined cheerleading competitions, and trying out for small commercial stints.

Like me, Joey is a myriad of things, so full of energy and life. There is an aura about Joey that is so refreshing that I could not resist and pulls me deeper, wanting to know more.

I felt like I have not only found my equal, but finally, someone who complements me completely.

Home at last: Real Estate History

In the early stages of human existence, people used to travel with all of their belongings in four-legged transportation, moving from place to place and leaving only traces of their activities, such as painted images of how they lived in that area, unwanted tools and supplies.

From 30,000-15,000 BC, our ancestors abandoned the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and slowly transitioned towards the agrarian-type society, thus ushering a new age of property ownership.

The early agrarian systems started with discovered fertile lands settled through brawn and those win get to claim it. Not long after, the mightiest were often declared as the leader of the clan, and those who are in power also has the authority to divide and assign the lands to those under their domain, marking the age of civilization. Channels were dug for irrigation, fortresses were built and maintained, and farming methods improved all the more. With all these land developments, the population of men grew in huge proportions.  A household of hunter-gatherers might be able to support one or a couple of children at most. Farmers, on the other hand, could produce several offspring and have better, sheltered environment to care for their young. The increased fertility and decreased mortality also meant increased available laborers.

Hunter-gatherers also followed a clan system, but scarcity of needs coupled with life’s uncertainty meant that this clan can only support no more than 3 extended families at most. The farmers soon came to realize they could no longer identify everyone in the clan they belong to. In exchange for the sacrifice of familiarity, the people in these small rural societies grew strength and safety in numbers. A well-fed and well-sheltered army can easily defeat desperate nomads. In exchange for the service of security, the commoners paid homage and tributes to their ruler who has claimed ownership of the society’s land – this, essentially, is the very first rental system. As these small villages of farmers grew into vast cities, the leading clans maintained ownership, usually by right of bloodline.

This system of security paid by labor developed into taxes and tenancy. Ruling families shared their wealth, including land ownership, to those close to them. They assigned titles and deeds to the lands that allowed the owners to gather (whether voluntarily or by force) revenues – or rent – produced by the commoners living in the land that they now hold.

Earlier records of mortgages were traced to the nobility era – it was an exclusive right of loan given only to the nobles.

The commoners are still able to trade their merchandise with other kingdoms, giving birth to the merchant class, and the general level of wealth increased. This resulted into non-agrarian shops and buildings that were bought, sold, and rented among the common people. The well-off merchants became the first common-born landlords, gaining wealth and status. Although they do not own the land as it still belongs to the ruler or land title holder, they do own the buildings on it and can rent that out to others.

In time, the age of kingdoms by bloodline is replaced with a system where the best and brightest rule a nation for the good of all its inhabitants. Politics emerged and members of the once-royal families were displaced, resulting to land titles and deeds broken into smaller parcels and are bought by those are able to settle payment.

After the agrarian and rural societies, industrial and urban societies sprang up in the 18th-19th Century. In the age of machines and inventions, the middle and even the lower class are given more rights and are able to acquire more properties; from small things like radios, to cars and houses. In this age, the wealth of the world increased, such that banks allowed “higher risk” mortgage loans to common people. This opened the possibility of common people owning their own properties, from cars, to lots, to house and lots. It has become increasingly available that people often purchase too much or take too much out of a mortgage. This isn’t always a good thing, though, as people generally take too much than what they can handle if given too much freedom. Acquiring too much debt through mortgage will most likely make you easily lose the property you obtained, the same way you easily owned it.

Land ownership is one of the investment opportunities available today. Land ownership has changed from being dictated by arms and strength to something that is bought, sold, traded, and rented. Since time immemorial, there has always been a payment for tenancy – a price paid to the owner for the land and its security. This was the privilege of clan leaders, then land rulers, and finally, landlords. Nowadays, almost everyone has the ability and privilege to own a house, and dramatically changed the way people live.

Ref: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/history-real-estate.asp

GOOD NEWS! Home Buyers: 2015 Real Estate

In the United States of America, the real estate is currently booming.  It started when the majority of business in America went into recession. Foreclosed properties increased between year 2006-2007.

RealtyTrac reported that since September 2008, the median-sale price of single-family homes and condos in October has reached its highest mark. The increase in the home property value and foreclosures made great market competitions among real estate investors, paying in cash, where traditional buyers are having a hard time to compete.

According to the chief economist for Zillow.com, Stan Humphries, predicts that market value of home properties will downtrend to approximately three percent annually instead of the six percent seen recently. Real estate investors will not be attracted to invest, wherein traditional buyers will have more chance on purchasing properties and balance in market will commence.

Home Buyers’ year

Finally we have our own house!

Home buyer’s with regular jobs or with moderate income will now be able to get into market.  Many millennial postponed or stopped owning a house, but that may the other way around for 2015. “By the end of 2015, millennial buyers will represent the largest group of home-buyers, taking over from Generation X,” Humphries says.

With fewer homes underwater, baby boomers will also be able to play in the market.

Lower Mortgages

Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae recently announced a new program. Redfin.com’s chief economist Nela Richardson says, “Freddy and Fannie have always been the industry leaders, and they’re saying, ‘It’s OK to lend to people who don’t have 5 percent down. It’s OK to extend credit in a reasonable and safe manner,”

Mortgage brokers are confident that the real estate industry will be prosperous.

Real estate investors’ good news.

Property market value in well established places will likely to get more expensive, which real estate market investors will eye and bet on.  Unlike for places that has economic and political disruption make market an unattractive option to invest or buy.

According to CityReality Levy, “Hong Kong, Moscow and Dubai are no longer ‘safe’ investment spots compared to New York and London,” while cities such as Boulder, Colo. and Austin, Texas that have become technology hubs already established themselves as a good real estate investment.

On the other side of the coin, inland California suffered a five-year long drought that has devastated crops and ranching in the typically fertile valley that stretches for hundreds of miles from Chico to Bakersfield, went down with the last real estate crash, said Daren Blomquist of RealtyTrac.

References:

Link:  http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2014/12/09/what-real-estate-trends-to-expect-in-2015

Link:  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/five-real-estate-trends-to-watch-in-2015-2014-12-29?page=2

Image: http://data.websitebox.com/data/users/0000/644/uploads/ATL_BLK_Family_Selling_home.jpg

What’s an Oreo Molina?

Oreo is a sandwich cookie with two chocolate wafers stuffed with sweet creme filling.  Molina is a brand name for an extra virgin olive oil.  Dunking an all-time-favorite cookie in oil doesn’t sound appetizing at all, it’s even downright gross.

This post is not about combining a healthy food with an unhealthy one to make a “healthy” recipe. This is about a person I know who is “healthy” physically and in so many ways, my trainer, Juan Paolo Tumalad.  What is the connection? check my title.

Instead of declaring his real name at work, he’d rather use Oreo as his first name and Molina as his last name. Behind the reason for the name, he likes Oreo so much that he’d rather eat it with ketchup.  Yes, you read it right, ketchup with an Oreo cookie.  Sounds weird, but that’s how he likes his food. Sweet and sour, salty and sweet, and the list goes on.

Molina is his middle name.  I do not know the reason behind it, but I have one assumption.  That is, Oreo is a mama’s boy, an “independent” mama’s boy.  The difference between an independent and dependent one is that the latter usually does not have his own decision. Oreo can definitely decide for himself. After a visit at his house in Las Pinas, I saw how he respects and assists his mom, how he talks to her in a caring tone. Being an independent  mama’s boy is not bad, in fact it says so much about a person on how they respect people. He is also a provider to his parents.

He is very professional.  He is just twenty-four years old, but he has experienced a lot of operational positions: from being a Mentor to Operations Manager.  Since he got ill from the daily commute with working outside, he opted to work from home instead. In less than a year, he already got promoted to a Senior Executive Program Trainer.

As a child, he had experience with both television commercial and educational program. Remember Epol Apple? If you are a 90’s kid, you probably watched that morning program. He learned a lot of English language rules doing that program, which could explain why he is fluent in English, being exposed at an early age. How about that Sunlight laundry bar television commercial, precedent to Surf laundry detergent?  He was Lumen’s kid wearing a boy-scout uniform.

He also choreographs cheerleading steps and stunts to different schools. He also finds time to assist MyOutD trainees with outdoor activities such as filming.  He acts as director and sometimes as a special participating actor.

All in all, this post is about a healthy person who lives his life to the fullest.  Below is a recipe for a healthy life:

Have a healthy diet.

Have a healthy relationship with your family.

Have a healthy connection with friends

Have a healthy passion with learning new things for career growth

Have a healthy outlook in life.

Live life to the fullest!

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