Ric's Website

I've always thought of volunteering in a far and exotic place, doing my share of helping the world. However, I never had the opportunity. If given the chance, I would have applied as a UN Volunteer(UNV). If interested, here's the minimum requirements: 25 years old and older. University degree or higher technical diploma. At least two years of relevant work experience in a professional background. Good working knowledge of at least one of these languages: English, French or Spanish. Commitment to the values and principles of volunteerism. Ability to work in a multicultural environment. Willingness to work with people and local organizations to draw upon the synergies between expert solutions and local knowledge. Ability to adjust in difficult living conditions and sometimes remote locations. Strong interpersonal and organizational skills. Prior volunteering and/or working experience in a developing country is an asset. Processing of application is f

I've read somewhere that life is a continuous learning and adaptation process. The moment that we stop learning and adapting is the start of our gradual slide to insignificance. At this stage, I suddenly found an urge to learn something new and the first thing that came to my mind is to study Law in one of the reputable universities here in Iloilo . Things changed when I came across Coursera . It is an online education platform that brings together top notch universities and schools throughout the world and connects them to students worldwide. Some of the universities include Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Technical University of Munich and University of Melbourne. Coursera offers courses that caters to almost all areas of interests. These courses are online with complete videos, assignments, quizzes and exams. After the course which last for a few weeks to several months, they award a statement of completion. KhanAcademy. Org ,  edX . Org , AcademicEarth. Org , and

Are you a physical fitness buff? No need to go to the gym and pay membership fees. There are now lots of websites that offer videos and instructional exercises for free. Personally, I'd rather spend the time and energy cleaning the house or gardening, haha. But hey, if you prefer to workout here's a couple of sites worth trying out. HufftingtonPost have a comprehensive list of free workout resources. Yoga, short exercises, no equipment, name it, this list have it. The list however, didn't include DareBee . According to their website, they are a global health and fitness resource especially “designed to make regular exercise fun, easy to start and maintain and make part of your lifestyle — on a budget”. They have numerous workouts designed for every need: for abs, for cardio, etc. The exercises are presented in a visually easy to understand steps. The workouts don’t need equipment. Just like your body, you need to keep your brains fit and active by exercising. How? By playi

Do you need some info regarding a particular person? Admit it, there is at least one occasion you stalked someone online, haha. Charlie App scours and collects information about a person from hundreds of sources and automatically sends you a one page infographic about that individual. Neat isn't it? The official purpose is to provide you valuable personal information in advance, long before you come face to face in a meeting with that person. But hey, you can use it to privately investigate them too. It's actually up to you to what do with the data, haha. Alternatively, you can also use a people search engine such as Pipl .

Dreaming of an off the grid life? If yes, then OffGridWorld is paradise found. It has the latest information about living off the grid, sustainable living, solar power, wind power, renewable energy, hydroponics, recycling, DIY projects and more. Are you a survivor buff? I have good news for you that I'm sure will brighten up your gloomy outlook. Survivor Library has a huge collection of literature dedicated to surviving almost any disaster or just living in the absence of modern technology. Nuclear war? Pandemic? Or just living off the grid? Don't panic and proceed to their site in a calm and orderly fashion and read on the various topics. My personal ideas of a sustainable lifestyle is a place located in a secured gated community and a concrete typhoon resilient house that is elevated to help avoid floods. The primary water source is rain, collected from the rooftop and stored in a water tight compartment below the house, one of the reason why it is elevated. Deep well with w

Everybody wants to be happy. And you can't be happy without understanding what happiness is. It is defined as “the state of being happy”. But what is being happy? Well, that depends on the person. What makes one happy doesn't apply to the other. Anyways, there are sites that specially cater to studying and spreading it. Explore and meet your happiness below. Things To Be Happy About has a unique approach to listing everyday things to be happy about. It presents it in a series of illustrations that are clickable. When clicked, it shows a list of to dos that I supposed you have to be thankful. When done you can refresh it to get new ones. In effect, you stay happy for quite a long time, haha. The list is not complete without Happify . The site offers scientific games and activities to help you attain  happiness . They too have “ feel good ” news.  After waking up and taking breakfast I excitedly power on my PC and guess what's on my browser? Websites that's brimming with

Did you know the Philippines have their own writing system before? It's called Baybayin, also erroneously referred to as Alibata. It is an ancient script derived from Brahmic scripts of India and is widely used until the late 19th century. Baybayin is a syllabary composed of 17 basic characters. A syllabary is a set of written characters that represent syllables and is used to write a given language. See all the Baybayin symbols  at Quimson.Net. It's a shame that it is no longer popular and few Filipinos are even aware of it. Despite this sad reality, the letterforms are alive to some degree. In fact, it is inscribed in University of Philippine's graduation attire, the sablay and if you look closely at the front of any peso bill, there are symbols on top of the number, it means "Pilipino". Personally, I think the letters would make a beautiful tattoo. There are two proposed bills that seek to promote the use of this ancient writing system. One is the Baybayin Act

Since I was a teenager, I grappled with combination skin. I've been jumping from one soap to another, but I couldn't find one that I can use for long periods of time. That was the case until I came across Cleansing Bar by Human Nature. After using it, I noticed the good effects immediately. Being a user myself and attest to the benefits of using them in everyday life, I've listed some of the best products to use. Clothing: T-shirts: Cotton Club, H&M and Brute(L), thin, loose, but I also buy any brand as long as its made of 100% cotton, plain with no design and colors that are light shades of gray, blue, yellow, pink and brown. Pants & shorts: Uniqlo(M)thin, loose type, lots of pockets, garterize hip with tie, garterize ankle. Boxer shorts: Carter, Brute & Warren(M), loose type. Undies: Brute(XL), trunk type, 100% cotton. Personal Hygiene: Shampoo: Human Nature Anti-dandruff Shampoo Shaving Cream: Human Nature Hand Sanitiser: Human Nature or

Working long hours in front of the laptop have a lot of side effects. But most concerning is eye strain. Computer screens are bright and staring at them without blinking results to dryness and redness of the eyes, blurred vision, and migraines. Desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile phone screens emit blue light, which disrupts sleeping patterns. According to a study, eye strain affects some 90% of people who spend at least 3 hours a day in front of the computer. One way to ease eye strain is to follow is the 20-20 rule. This means that every 20 minutes, look at an object around 20 feet away, and stare at it for 20 seconds. This way you're giving your eyes a break. But this is difficult to apply in real life. Like me for example, when I'm focused on work I tend to forget a lot of things. There was even a time I wasn't aware my neighbor's house next door was on fire,  haha . To remedy this, use software and web apps.  F.lux is desktop software that adjusts the color of the

There are numerous advantages in getting a life insurance, especially if you get one that also offers an investment option. Such type of insurance is known as variable life insurance. In 2008, I took Sun Life Financial's Sun FlexiLink plan. Sun FlexiLink is a peso-denominated insurance plan that provides financial protection at the same time gives you the option to choose where your premium payments will be invested. I selected the Balanced Fund. With variable life insurance, your plan's fund value appreciates/depreciates depending on the performance of the fund selected. In this aspect, it is similar to a mutual fund or UITF, except that your beneficiary is guaranteed to receive the plan's face amount, no matter what happens to the fund. You can also withdraw portions of the fund value if needed. On top of the face value and fund value, you get supplemental benefits such as the Hospital Income Benefit (HIB), which pays a daily hospital income in case of hospitalization of

Ever heard of the high tech pen NASA got made for use in space? It supposedly cost millions of dollars to develop. The Russian cosmonauts meanwhile just use pencils. This was proven to be a myth . However, the lesson imparted is not lost. Sometimes when stuck in a complicated problem, it's better to use common sense and practicality. A case in point is during one of my development projects where the client is selling workshops through the Shopify platform. The workshops are embedded in a WordPress site using the Buy Button SDK . My task is to build a reservation expiry feature that will empty the cart after a certain duration, and it comes with a message box notifying buyers that their reservation will expire in a few minutes. After finishing the main modules like timer, date diff calculations, cart empty, etc., I'm left with the message box. This is very straight forward, so I thought. My first attempt is to use the native JavaScript(JS) alert. But found out that it freezes