Coffeetable Blog

Yahoo! Shine recently featured the product refund in the US for Baby Einstein videos primarily because they (quoting the article) "...did not, as promised, turn babies into wunderkinds." You can read the full article by clicking on the pic at the left.

As a parent of young kids, I am sure I have a couple of such videos at home, along with other kid staples like Barney, Sesame Street, Backyardigans, and even not so common ones like Land Before Time. These videos have always played two roles for our family: they entertain while at the same time they introduce children to educational concepts. In addition, we got tons of picture books and starter books and playboards and toys at home, all intended to spur the kids to curiosity and imagination at every turn possible. And it is implied in all these that we as parents will be there to guide and educate them. That their learning will primarily be due to our teaching them, and these materials only as tools.

It would appear then that some parents had other ideas in mind. Reading the article, it seems that the sale of Baby Einstein was anchored on a promise (or two): an easy way to educate kids that would bring extraordinary results.

In the modern world we live in, it's not really surprising to accept that promise as gospel truth. We are regularly bombarded by news of successful people who seemed to have it made it big "overnight". So, easy is not really a hard thing to accept (pun intended). But the fact is, easy is only easy when you have prepared for more than just overnight. For most of us, the only part we see of these successful people is their time in the limelight and possibly the minute before that. We do not see what they went through in the proverbial dark room before that impressive picture of them comes out in the light. I seriously doubt that anybody, other than being born into wealth or doing something illegal, could actually make it big without putting in his dues. But then again, we choose to accept what is pleasing to our senses.

To be fair, some parents are simply already overburdened. They got a job, home chores, and so many other valid and worthwhile things to do that it sounds good to have a product that can deliver as much promise. Well, any burger will taste good if you're hungry. This is one of those hungry moments for parents. It really does take willpower to decide to cut back on some things to make way for something of paramount importance as the education of our children.

And then, some are simply lazy. To the point of irresponsibility of abdicating their duty of educating their children to "experts". So the children watch these videos while the parents are on their Facebook's virtual farms, in the phone, or in some other time-wasters.

Teaching children is indeed a challenge. I have to say it's even a skill that one needs to learn and will be good at only with constant practice. But it's something that we cannot fail on. The education of our children is simply something we cannot leave to automation. After all, each one of us is unique in his or her own way. And no standardized educational tool can account for that uniqueness.

Hopefully this product refund will awaken many to the reality of what true education entails.

Been reading about lemons on the Net lately, after that night when I thought of throwing a slice of lemon on my glass of water. The rest of what you will read below is a recollection of what I've come across so far, as far my recall goes.

A simple Google search led me to a couple of sites about Master Cleanse, which is a detox/weight reduction approach using primarily lemons and not much else. I've never been a fan of anything about detox or cleansing that excludes a whole bunch of everything else except for a few food types, regardless if it was intended to be done only for a period of time. Besides, it was also intended for weight reduction, which is something I don't have need of. So I move on.

The next thing I started reading about is the alkalizing property of lemons. Alkalinity is generally that state of being not acidic. Being acidic carries with it certain limitations in how the body can absorb nutrients and dispose of wastes, hence bad. Technically, being not acidic can be measured in terms of ph levels, with about 7.0 ph as being "neutral", and anything lower than that contributing to acidity. Coffee is about 4.5ph, while lemons goes a long way down at 2.3ph.

Now, that seems to run counter in most sites that says lemons actually contribute to lessening acidity in the body, or technically, bringing the body fluids closer to 7.0ph. That's where the term "alkalizing" comes into play. Lemon, though being acidic, actually contributes to alkalinity because it triggers a reaction in the body's organs to produce stuff that reduces acidity and bring about alkalinity. Hmmm sounds interesting, so I asked a medical friend of mine.

My medical friend calls the reaction of the body to the lemon as a possible form of "compensation", which happens to other situations in the body to account for certain imbalances. But this can lead to longer-term problems. For example, a situation in the body can reduce the heart's ability to pump blood, for which the body will compensate by increasing the heart rate, or the number of pumps in a given time. The desired effect may be obtained, but may result in greater damage to the body in the future. What needs to be done instead is to possibly remove the reason why the heart is not pumping blood as well as it should, like having enough exercise and proper diet.

In possibly the same way, when we take in a certain amount of lemon juice, the body is releasing substances to induce alkalinity because of the high level of acidity. Which makes drinking substantial amounts of lemon juice to induce alkalinity (some sites recommend the juice of half of a lemon to be squeezed in a glass of water, three times a day) essentially pointless, even dangerous to the body.

So far, I have yet to find a site that's actually a "medical" one that has something to say about lemons. Hope you could share here if you have come across some.

How would you like to take the stairs rather than the escalator or the elevator? Would you pick up your trash if you missed shooting it in the garbage bin? Maybe you would, but it won't be something that you would look forward to, right? But what if tasks like these that are obviously good for us can be fun to do, encouraging us to even go out of our way to be able to do it? That is the fun theory.

An initiative of Volkswagen, the fun theory is all about changing people's behavior for the better by making it easy, even fun, for them to do so. Based on the two videos on the site (click on pic above), ways to accomplish this include taking the mundane out of a certain activity, like giving music to your steps as you climb a set of stairs decorated like a piano and fitted with the applicable piano sounds as you step up. You can even see in a portion of the video an old man who is already slow in his steps choosing the piano stairs over the adjacent escalator.

Another way they have done it is making something amusing, like the case of the deepest trash bin. A trash bin is fitted with a sensor that when you put in a trash, would create a sound like an object is falling to a very very deep hole ending in a thud. People who have heard it even went so far as to collect garbage from around to put in the bin.

Of course, these ideas can lose their edge as you see them day in and day out. Which only highlights the need for more and more ideas like these. That's why Volkswagen is sponsoring a competition called the Fun Theory Award, where they will have cash awards for fun ways to change behaviour. Head over to their site to find out how to submit your ideas.

And in the interest of making it fun for everyone, I am sharing one of their videos from the site right here.



Have a fun day!

It's quite encouraging to find movies that both kids and adults can enjoy, with each one getting the point of the movie in somewhat different ways. I don't think my 4-year-old son understood it when one of the rodents said something about rising to the occasion and becoming great because somebody believed in you, regardless of where you started. But I do think he got the fact that even a rodent can put down a monster coffeemaker and an army of similar machines. And all that accomplished because of teamwork, perseverance, and risk-taking.

G-Force appeals because of our tendency to like something cute and cuddly doing something high-tech and risky. And of course, we like ordinary machines changing into futuristic robots and shooting lasers and wreaking havoc and stuff. Plus high-tech tools and gadgets with just the slight tinge of being real, now or sometime soon. The whole idea of G-Force is actually the use of non-human agents, be it biological or mechanical.

I like it that they kept mum on a possible love story. Maybe they can let it bloom on a future sequel. The redemption at the end of the movie is also something worth noting, keeping all those cuddly ones on the good side, which is easier for the little ones to digest. Lastly, nice pace. Not much "downtime" to keep everybody on their toes.

My only "problem" is that I didn't enjoyed using the eyeglasses that comes with watching the movie on 3D. Neither did my son. But that's a different matter altogether, and the subject of my future post.

Here's my take on another movie. Click HERE.

Just a quick follow up on what I've been learning about Cafe World. These include friend visits, renovations, and use of friend gifts.


Friendship Has Its Limits

I mentioned before that friend visits will allow you to earn xp points and coins at least once a day. But I thought back then that the xp and coins you will earn will depend on the level of your friend. Turns out it's a random thing. Even a level 1 friend can give you 5 xp and 20 coins, the highest I have seen so far. The reverse can happen as well, with a high level friend only giving you 1 xp and 5 coins. Looks reasonable to me, otherwise you will end up leveling primarily because of your friends' efforts. I think it's also one way to remedy the abuse of adding "temp" friends like what people have been doing at Restaurant City. If somehow you end up getting only a limited number of maximum rewards for friend visits, it doesn't really pay to add too many people when you will only earn 1xp every visit.


Renovate Carefully

Be careful in renovating when the equipment you are about to remove from your resto has something on it or you are using it. I lost an entire batch of one day's worth of cooking totaling 4,000 servings (or 16,000 coins @ 4 coins per serving) when I removed the serving table carrying the serving and replaced it with an upgraded serving table. All the while I thought the servings will be retained, since when I replaced a dirty stove with a higher model stove, the new one also ended up being dirty. I guess that's not the way the game is designed, where you lose valuable things without even being prompted. But since the game is in beta, it's really a case of renovate at your own risk. Also, try to minimize going in and out of the renovate mode, since it appears that the customers you have are reset when you go out of renovate mode, which means you lose out on those that were seated when you started renovating.


Maximize Your Gifts

You can maximize the use of friend gifts (those drinks they send you) if you use them when your tables are all full. However, if you happen to be like me who visit Cafe World only once a day, you may not expect to see a high popularity rating when you log in because the servings by then and it would have been a waste of resources to invest in so many tables and chairs when I know many of them will be non-earning perhaps half of the time. However, I am reserving the gifts for that golden moment when I can be online when my popularity is going up and I can supply as much tables and chairs as needed to keep up with the demand. Then I should use those gifts when I perceive that the maximum number of diners possible has been reached. Hopefully the waiting would be worth it. And hopefully that day would come.

Forgive this rant, I just have to get it out of my chest. Hopefully, something good can still come out of this. I just got back to Manila from my trip to Cebu a few days back (see my post), and was really looking forward to a nice dinner with my family who picked me up at the airport. We headed for Mall of Asia, and we were already inside World of Chicken when we noticed the place is already full. So we decided to move to Rai Rai Ken, which is just beside it. Turns out it's my biggest mistake of the night.

We were seated at those corner cubicles, the closest one to the serving counter. Then, my two-year old daughter had a fit and threw up. She threw up several times, and it was on the floor and partly on the table.

Our first reaction was to take hold of something we can use to wipe my daughter's mouth with, as well as my own hand which got covered with the vomit. Well, that should have been Rai Rai Ken's staff's first reaction as well. Instead, as I was standing there trying to get ourselves cleaned up, a crew approached us to bring our order. AND THEN DID NOTHING ELSE. My wife had to ask them for tissue papers, had to ask them to mop the floor, and had to ask them for a plastic bag where we can place the tissues. Later, we even have I think the shift supervisor come over to bring us something, but never anything in the context of apology for not having assisted us.

I must have been quite tired that night that the only thing I thought of doing to get back on them is not to leave them any tip. Well, I have my wits back and I hope they like this publicity I am giving them.

If you think I rant good, go check THIS out as well.

I am in Cebu City today, as part of a group from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) or the Central Bank of the Philippines. Tomorrow, I will be one of the resource speakers on BSP's Public Information Campaign, which is part of the continuing activities of BSP's Economic and Financial Learning Center. My role is to discuss the topic of electronic money, which has been my exposure for about a year now, and continues to be part of my activities as one of the Bank Officer of BSP. The rest of the speakers will have topics ranging from microfinance, payment systems, and recent economic developments. Each of us will have fifteen minutes to discuss our part, which will be followed by an open forum after all the speakers have finished their presentations.

I find it worthwhile being able to share to people (our audience of 150 will come from business, academe, and local government sectors) what I know of this aspect of the financial system and somehow encourage them to further their financial education. Especially when you realize that the Philippines is considered at the forefront of mobile commerce (m-commerce), of which electronic money is an integral part of. I had the chance to discuss this topic, along with internet banking, to study groups coming from Indonesia, Cambodia, and other Southeast Asian countries, who are eager to find out how we have been successful in the implementation of m-commerce. I even had the chance to go to Chennai, India to share my knowledge and experience on m-commerce to a group of policymakers and leaders of grassroots microfinance organizations.

Aside from the topic itself, speaking engagements like this provide me with opportunity to develop my presentation and interpersonal skills. And the ensuing activities, like the business dinner later, provide opportunities to network and further my knowledge, gaining insights from industry leaders themselves and somehow channel this knowledge to help out my superiors in crafting better regulations and policies.

Of course, there's also the fun of being able to go around the country for free. I've never been to Cebu, and I look forward to the experience.

I will have some posts in the future here on the key areas of my presentation in Cebu. If you have some questions or queries related to the above or other financial matters, you may leave a comment which can help me in deciding what and how to write about financial topics in the future.

You may want to check out my other posts related to finance and investment HERE.

Just a little spontaneous event from my everyday surroundings...

Enjoy!




So, which one dance better? Let me see your votes.

Have a nice day!

Zynga recently launched Cafe World, it's very own game to match the other restaurant games in Facebook. The game has the same look and feel as Restaurant City. And perhaps that's really the intention, because they are the only ones in the same category among cafe/ restaurant game types in Facebook. However, it has some significant differences from each other.

I have just started in the game, but let me share some of the things I've been learning so far. I've also included some comparison to Restaurant City which I have noticed so far.

Objective of the Game

You start off as the chef of your own cafe. The objective is managing a cafe operation, making it profitable so that you can purchase items to make your restaurant as unique and eye-catching as possible. Leveling is an integral part of the game, which unlocks certain features of the game when you reach certain levels. These include being able to have more choices in what to cook and option to hire more friends as cafe staff. You acquire cafe points, which is the level up unit of the game everytime you accomplish some tasks, such as cooking food and cleaning up the stoves you used for cooking. The dishes you cook earn you coins as they are served by your crew. You use the coins to buy more ingredients to cook your dishes (explained below) and to upgrade and decorate your cafe. Dishes continue to be served by your waiters as long they have been moved to the serving counter, even when you are offline.


The leveling process is different in Restaurant City, where the Gourmet Points used in leveling is earned as part of serving the dishes. And there is also the requirement in Restaurant City that the browser window you are using should be active (meaning, open on top of all other browsers, otherwise you only earn the coins and not the Gourmet Points). In Cafe World, the Cafe Points is earned as part of your activity in cooking, cleaning stoves, and serving the dishes, as well as the occasional hiring of cafe crew. What's similar is that you have to be active in both cases in somewhat different manner, otherwise you don't level up. And in the case of Cafe World, you don't even get coins if you don't cook since you have to manually prepare the dishes and move them to the serving tables before your crew can serve them to the customers and get paid for it.

Preparing Dishes

You prepare a dish by purchasing the necessary ingredients as provided for in the cookbook. However, you don't purchase ingredients individually, but collectively for the dish you intend to cook. This means no need to be looking for ingredients from friends as in Restaurant City. Ingredients in the preparation of dishes are purchased using the game's gold system, and are always available.


Each purchase of ingredients to cook a dish will yield a certain number of servings, where dishes with shorter cooking time having less servings compared to dishes with longer cooking time. Cooking times can be as fast as 5 minutes to as long as 48 hours. So there's really a dish for everyone, whether you are a 24/7 online player or an occasional Facebook user that can log on only for several times (or even just once) during the day. Certain dishes also yields different amounts of income, but the main difference in the amount that you will earn per batch is really in the number of servings per batch. Basically, the more active you are in the game, the more you will earn. Which only stands to reason. But of course, that also means a great deal more effort. To illustrate concretely, you will earn FOUR TIMES MORE serving cheeseburgers that cooks every 5 minutes against a spit-roasted chicken which cooks for 24 hours. However, with the cheeseburger, you will have to be checking your cafe every 10 minutes since dishes spoil at the same amount of time as the cooking time, as against checking your chicken once a day or even less since it won't spoil until after the 2nd day from cooking. This means that unless you can play for at least six hours a day, you are better off just cooking the chicken rather than the cheeseburgers.


Unlike in Restaurant City, dishes are not leveled up in Cafe World since it operates under a different set of playing conditions. Since I am a casual player that only gets to check my Facebook at night during weekdays, I can only serve the chicken or the roast beef, since they have 24-hour and 48-hour cooking times, respectively. But I tend to serve only the chicken since it will yield more income for me. Hopefully as I level up I will have access to additional dishes that have the same cooking time as the chicken, so I can serve more varied meals.

Hiring Cafe Crew

Like in Restaurant City, you start off by hiring one of your friends as a crew or waiter.
This also does not require their acceptance. You get to hire more crew as you level up.

Miscellaneous

You can purchase upgrades of furniture and equipment to make your cafe look better. You can expand your cafe by buying a larger floor area also from the in-game shop.

The number of customers you will have on a given amount of time will depend on the popularity of your cafe, which is basically the same as with Restaurant City. But since the dishes are prepared somewhat differently, I find no real incentive in closing the cafe when I go offline, even if it would mean losing popularity points. You will get to understand it when you start playing.

There is currently no player rating feature. Hopefully it will have one soon. Not sure if they have a messaging system in place as well.

That's it for now. I will post more about this game as I progress. Let me know if you discovered something as well.

More Cafe World posts here.

As I am building my list of How To Make Money Online, let me start off on the simplest way to do it for bloggers: hosting ads. This method simply requires that you put an HTML code somewhere in your blog, which would allow ad hosting sites like those above to show ads of advertisers that they have a partnership with. With the availability of widget programs, placing the code is simply as copying the code, pasting it in the widget, and placing it where you want in your blog. At least that's the way it is with Blogger.

A few characteristics of this method includes:

1. Earning is primarily determined by the size of the traffic of your site or blog. Basically there are two ways to earn: impressions and clicks. Impressions is accomplished by simply showing the ads in your blog, sort of a billboard on a highway or an ad on a newspaper. Clicks is when a person who sees the ad actually gets interested enough to follow where the link goes. Obviously you earn more with clicks on individual basis, simply because not everybody who sees the ad will actually click it.

2. The ads presented are usually those that relate to the topics you discuss in your blog. This makes it more likely for viewers to be interested in the ads.

3. You usually do not have control over what ads gets presented, aside from the general guidelines of keeping it family-oriented and similar criteria.

So far, I have yet to receive hard cash from this method. This is because the ad hosts usually have a minimum payout amount, usually at around $50. And it usually takes a considerable number of impressions and clicks, usually in the thousands, before you can even get to a dollar. But since they do not require any maintenance on my part, it doesn't hurt placing them in my blog at the onset. Who knows, I may just hit the big time and I would really appreciate the extra income.