Living with an ISTJ Sister as an ENFP

Hello!

First of all, this is my version of The INFP Potato’s Living with an ISTJ Dad as an INFP. She’s my best friend and you can also check out her blog. Anyways, yes, again, this is my version of her blog and I’m going to try to be as close as I could, as in copy some of her words, but with my version. Like a parody! Haha~! Thanks a lot for your time! 🙂

To give you a mini introduction to this article, here is a not-so-rare photograph of my ISTJ wacky baby sister copying a signature pose of one of the characters of the current Filipinos’ favorite TV couple, who in my always amazed and always curious ENFP opinion, can see why they are people’s favorite, and yep, since it’s popular my sister took a picture with me (just cropped) as she posed as Lola Nidora:

This is a picture from Facebook where I tagged my sister actually (and I cropped it. I’m actually beside her)

To those asking why I had to show this picture, let me answer your question. It is to make a point. It is an objective caught on camera proof that ISTJs aren’t always prim, proper, serious, and strict. They can be dorky and I strongly believe that they put a lot of effort to make people laugh – for my sister, it’s so natural for her to have a wacky picture, I guess because she grew up in a wacky environment. And just in case there are some skeptics out there, no, that photo is not staged. When she’s taking a photo of herself, usually it’s serious. But it isn’t unnatural for her to pose wackily especially when she’s with somebody.

Now let’s go straight to the point.

INFP Potato said: “A lot of people on the MBTI online community have been wondering what it is like for an INFP to have an ISTJ dad. In a lot of forums I read online, I saw this repetitive reference to INFP-ISTJ relationship as the ‘worst possible combination’ and ‘road to hell’-ish kind of team up. But not a lot of things were written about an INFP-ISTJ child-parent relationship” , and so I am also assuming that not a lot of articles have been talking about ENFP-ISTJ sibling relationship, so I am here to write one for you by talking about my own experience as an ENFP.

CAREER CHOICES AND LIFE DECISIONS (I guess I can’t copy her  blog on this)

Career Choices, hmmm… Well if it’s about career, she supports what I want. Not like she’s serious about it. My ISTJ sister doesn’t have her own passion. She does have things she likes: such as games, singing, musicals, watching movies, etc. But it isn’t really a passion. It’s more of what she likes. Whereas I, those are the things I’m passionate about. She even told me that she can’t even remember what she was doing when she was little, however she does remember what I was doing. Since we were kids, she liked what I liked, she did what I did, but it all had to start with me and what my passion was. In other words, a lot of the things she liked now started with me liking it. So… now, we both like games, we both like singing, we both like musicals, we both like watching movies, we both like a lot of things we can call our hobby. So, though it’s a big dream, she supports me being an interpreter, being “famous” (lol) in the internet for the song covers, dubsmash, and other projects that we do. So, she’s supportive to pursue the things that we like.

However, on the serious side, she actually wants to have a business. From the start, she has been saving to start one. Though her salary is the smallest in the whole family, her savings is the largest (although it’s not that much. It’s largest in terms of we don’t have our own savings haha). To be honest, she’s our family bank who can lend us money without interest. Honestly, I’m currently writing this with a big debt that I owe to her. My parents also owes her. So yep, she’s actually devastated that she can’t see her savings (it’s like it’s not moving at all and it’s decreasing) because of people who keep borrowing money. Haha!

When I asked her what is her dream career path, it is to be a CEO! I thought she was joking but noooo. She really wants to be a boss! She wants to have her own business, she wants her own company. She was actually imagining to own her company with me as the co-owner and the spokesperson (coz she don’t like speaking to people).

Speaking of her game plan to start the business, I was obliged (or let’s just say I signed an imaginary contract) to give P1,000 a month to save up for the business. Honestly, that plan was blown by the wind because I owe her money now, and I’m focused on paying what I owe first. And because of that, she had been reminding me (almost everyday if you were to exaggerate things) to pay up. Sometimes, I just paid her and 3 minutes had not yet passed, she will remind me to pay again. She’ll even remind you to save your money or don’t spend too much or else I can’t pay her back, which is suffocating for an ENFP who likes freedom. Me as an ENFP, would like freedom and non-tight budget to spend for whatever happens. But if you think about it, she’s right. I really appreciate her forceful ways of reminding me to pay up. Haha! Just lecturing her to not remind somebody who just recently paid, coz it’s so stressful and irritating!

Now that I mentioned that she is strict when it comes to budget and members of the family owing her, she gets mad (not that mad) and lectures when we have excessive stuff in the house. For example, my ISFJ mother buys snacks for the family, she’ll be like “Where did you get the budget? You keep on spending and you’ll not have money again!”, later on she’ll still eat. She doesn’t consider that it’s for family happiness. Another example is when my mom asks her for additional food budget and in that moment, we were in a tight budget, though not so tight for her not to approve the request. She’ll be like “We have sardines there! We have egg!”, when Mama wanted to cook something special for the family.

That people, is just one of the many things that frustrates me as an ENFP to have an ISTJ sister. They can be controlling and demanding, and a lot of times they wont even consider how you feel. I therefore conclude, that MBTI descriptions of ISTJs on how they are strict and ‘practical’ minded without regard for people’s feelings, can be true for a lot of cases.

What I like about what my sister did though is that, again, they are the balancing factor in the family who saves money for practical things. My ISFP dad spends a lot on things he likes, my ISFJ mom though practical spends a lot to help other people pay the bills, for house repairs and home improvements, and for family snacks and happiness, and me and as an ENFP also spends a lot for food and stuff depending on what I want. So, she who can save, is the family treasurer. Everything goes through her. The family income and family contribution goes to her and she budgets it all. If you need to ask her for money, it’s like it’s for approval. You need to state a good reason why you need it.

And I do appreciate that her strong practical skills balances all three of us’ out of control budget.  For that, I think it is good to have an ISTJ around to ground us and help us manage especially with financial responsibilities.

CLEANING THE HOUSE

As an ENFP, I rarely clean. And guess what, as an ISTJ, my sister rarely cleans the house either. Haha! I clean more than she does! Maybe it’s because we have a do-it-all ISFJ mom in the house who magically cleans the house effectively and efficiently in such little time. And when I say magically, think of Elsa as she sings “My powers flurry through the air into the ground” and then boom! this side and that side of the room is clean.

Anyways, my ISTJ sister said that she cleans before, (which is true) but then eveything changed when she realized that it’s suuuuper easy for the house to become messy again. So she’s like “What’s the point?”, hence what she is today.

She is clean and orderly though on her personal things, for example: her bag, her stuff, her cabinet (which is like a safe) where she keeps the family budget, her office desk, and etc. I guess it depends. I read in one article that ISTJs are dutiful in things they consider their duty. Maybe she does not consider this one as her duty inside? Haha! I guess that might be one of the reason. Another is, like I said, we have an ISFJ mom who magically cleans. But yep, not all ISTJs clean the house.

SCHOOL WORK

She does help me with school works. But most of the time, it’s the other way around. If INFP Potato’s dad help her somewhat with school works, I help my ISTJ sister on hers. Let me discuss some of the reasons why this is the case.

1. She isn’t good at writing while I kind of am. So, she needs my help.
2. If she isn’t the group leader in school, she is like the group leader. You know how your classmates slack off in a group project? She takes the responsibilities of unfinished work. And because of that, again, she needs help.
3. She wants her school project to be perfect. Another reason why she just take other people’s task. But yeah, again, the consequence is, we have to help her.

In all fairness, her school projects are always above average. That’s why she’s a dean lister. In the defense where she had to defend and discuss her website project (coz she’s an I.T.), she can answer any questions and any critics on her work, proving that her work is the best on there is. It’s really impressive and you can’t criticize anything in that project. Proud to say, I helped out. Hehe~

Speaking of helping out, it’s not only me. Let me tell you a view of how she manages those hectic school works. Think of an office, yeah, a business office. She’s the boss, while me, mama, and a friend of ours are workers. In a room, where we have low volume music, all of us are working on her project, working on our assigned tasks. We literally looked like an office. Another bossish moment was when she was asking mama to help her and mama promised to do so. My sister went to school and when she came back, mama has not started anything yet. She was like “You just watched T.V. that’s why you haven’t started anything yet!”. My friend who also helps calls her “Commander Aierrah”. ‘Coz she really was such a commander haha!

Anyways, copying INFP potato’s blog, she also discussed about how ISTJs give their opinions and the stuff you do. I agree with her. An ISTJ will just give maybe one compliment and 9 criticisms, like you didn’t do really well. My blog post, Dear Diary: Losing my Self-Esteem talks about how I felt when she criticized my performance. Anyways, with me talking about it with my ISTJ, I told her that she should learn to give compliments because, really, it’s like she’s allergic to giving compliments (especially if she’s giving her opinion on someone she’s close with. Maybe because it’s cheesy? I don’t know). However, in return, my ISTJ sister said that she thinks that’s what ISTJs feel: they feel like they’ve already complimented enough and doesn’t realize that 90% of it is criticism. For them, it’s okay, and they’re just giving “a few” opportunities to work with. That’s really hurtful and alien especially to an ENFP who is a personality type that is super generous in giving compliments to encourage people. ISTJs “compliments” are really discouraging that you’ll really feel down.

It’s a good thing that we stumbled upon MBTI, coz now we can appreciate personality types and learn to accept the differences. Without MBTI, tendency is to think “If I’m like this, why can’t you be like me? Why are you like that???”. With MBTI, you’ll just laugh it off like “Oh she’s like that coz she’s ISTJ Hahahahahaha!”, and the ISTJ laughs with you. So, you’ll learn to accept the differences that there are things you are but other people aren’t and there are things that other people are and you aren’t. The good thing about MBTI is that it gives a platform and a blueprint of how another type acts, and people who know their MBTI type can focus on fixing the negatives they have.

It is very important therefore for people with ENFP-ISTJ sibling relationship to study each others profile. MBTI is a tool to bridge gaps and create understanding. It isn’t a tool to decide that “Hey, these two types suck together so they might as well live on opposite sides of the Earth!” ENFPs like me must learn to appreciate the realism ISTJ offers. They should see the good in ISTJs step by step realistic approach to life. They must learn to recognize  their duties and fulfill them like responsible beings. For ISTJs like my sister, they should learn how to understand and be lenient to the freedom and interests ENFP likes. Don’t harass her in paying up the debt when she just paid. Don’t tell her to be super duper thrifty when she doesn’t want to – by the way, my sister is so thrifty that she budgets her fare going to and from work in a super duper tight budget (it really irritates me when she’s using her calculator and keeps calculating stuff, as in sometimes she wakes up and the first thing she does is calculate something) that any unplanned moment that she has to spend money will result her to need to ask somebody for money or at least to work for her money (like giving me a massage), whereas I would like the freedom to have abundant budget, as in if someone wants to ask money from me or ask me to buy food, I would have the money to do so. If an ENFP wants to be thrifty, she would (but as for me, I can’t haha). Learn to focus on the positives of a person sometimes and not just the negative parts of them that needs improvement. Don’t be too stuck up on tight budget and schedules, and learn to let loose just like how my sister supports my ENFP projects and even bonds with the wacky me.

As my last word I am going to say, that an ENFP-ISTJ sibling relationship isn’t that bad, especially if you have the same hobbies.  It is actually a good pairing since ENFP and ISTJ have the same functions, though virtually different in order. ENFPs’ strength is ISTJs’ weakness and vice versa. They balance each other out. All the work left is to learn how to find that balance.

(Yep, tried my best to be as close as how INFP Potato did it. But we really just had different experiences)

Thanks for reading!

My ISTJ sister on top of me, crushing me Q.Q

Me (left) and my ISTJ sis (right)

Left (INFP Potato), Middle (ISTJ sister), Right (Me, Koi Miazaki)

Why Duterte is my President

With the recent news about President Duterte, I have now completely made up my mind that I am proud that I wanted him to be president! And I want to share why. Why Duterte is my President. 

Disclaimer: The things I say in this blog are only from my opinion, driven by strong feelings that I wanted to share to the world. Thank you!

Other than he has the ability to change the whole Philippines like how he fixed the now-lovely Davao City, how he can decrease the crime rate to make our country safer, how he has magnificent ideas about the Philippines’ economy, and how he is strict with the rules to discipline the citizens, what gave me a sense of certainty is that he is kinda like Bro. Eli Soriano.

Note: They don’t have any affiliations whatsoever but I find some things about Duterte similar to Bro. Eli.

1. He is not easily swayed by religions. He wanted to side with the truth and only the truth.

Unlike other politicians, who to get the favor or the good side of religious leaders will befriend them and will please them, Duterte is very bold to keep the church and state separate. I’m so tired of politicians accepting favors from different religions just to get on their good side. I respect Mayor Rodrigo Duterte when he told Quibuloy “I am sorry. My loyalty to my friend ends where my loyalty to my country begins.” And I salute him even more when he said that the most hypocrite institution is the Catholic church. It was very bold of him to expose the wrong doings and history of not only the largest religion in the country but one of the largest in the whole world! He is not a pleaser of people but he loves the truth. Pretty much like Bro. Eli who cares less that people will go against him as long as the truth is revealed. Both of them do not tolerate wrong doings and will abide by the law unlike others who does not understand the separation of church and state. Both of them received death threats because of exposing the truth and following the rules. That is one of the biggest factor for me. It’s about time that the Philippines have a leader who is not a people-pleaser but someone who sides with the truth even how ugly it is.

Bro Eli’s Tweet

2. Duterte is a front liner

Duterte is a front liner in catching criminals and getting rid of wrong doings. He goes to raids and I even watched a show where he said that he used to drive the taxi at night so he can check if there’s any wrong doings in the city. Pretty much like Bro. Eli who is also the front liner in exposing the wrong. Bro. Eli hosts the program “Itanong mo kay Soriano” where he himself answers questions about faith. He also hosts Bible Expositions in different parts of the globe. Aside from those, he is also very reachable through email and twitter. Unlike other religions where you can’t even ask the leader anything about the Bible, but they will send a minister who will debate for them, Bro. Eli is the front liner who will talk about faith with different religious ministers. At times, he is also the one who cooks for the people who attended the gatherings. Both of them are hands-on and is a pioneer/ good example to the people they’re leading.

3. Duterte is Humanitarian

Not just promises and flowery words, but works are what we can see with Mayor Duterte. It’s not just “Pangakong Napapako” or unfulfilled promises. Look at all the programs Davao has: 911 Central, Mayor’s Permit in hospitals, CCTV cameras in public places, free rehabilitation for drug users who wanted to change, free ambulance, etc. You can see where government funds go! Pretty much like Bro Eli who is also a pioneer in a lot of humanitarian projects with God’s help. Some projects are: Free College, Free Ride, Free train ride for seniors, daily medical mission, transient homes, etc. Both of them are not just saying words, but actions are very vivid!

4. God-fearing

Mayor Duterte just looks like he isn’t God fearing, but I think otherwise. He does not believe in religion but he said that he does believe in God. You can also observe it in his words: “with God’s help, if God permits me to, thank God”. Unlike other leaders who is always “I, I, and I”. It’s no wonder that Duterte doesn’t believe in religion anymore because of the wrong-doings of a lot of religious institutions. Hopefully, he’ll get to hear Bro. Eli Soriano and restore faith in religion again 😉

Personally, I think that Duterte has good rules and ideals. People who does not like Duterte does not see the positive side of his rules. Curfews, for example, are safety measures to prevent crime. People who are against it obviously are pabebes who does not want to change and wants to continue with what they are doing right now. It’s like they wanted change but they don’t want the strict rules that implements change and discipline. They don’t want to be disciplined! Death penalty for example is simple. Like Duterte said, if you don’t want to be under the death penalty, simply don’t do crime! That’s it. He does not punish the innocent. He punishes the criminals. And because of that, hopefully criminals will be the ones to be afraid than the innocent being afraid of the criminals.

I’ll also be looking forward to Mayor Duterte’s words:

 

“Brother Eli, this is Mayor Duterte. Kumusta ka? I am not campaigning but… I’m going around trying to explain to the people my program of government. Religious freedom will be upheld, democratic processes obeyed, and freedom to… to to to to choose your religion will be also given importance. That right under the constitution.
Mabuhay ka!” – Du30

My assessment on his greeting is that I think he knows that Ang Dating Daan is being oppressed. His words are about promises of religious freedom. Ang Dating Daan is being banned at times by influential religious institutions. Though it did nothing wrong but to expose the truth, it gets stopped over and over again. Not only in the broadcast, but also in partylists and etc. Also, accoring to Article VI, Section 28: Charitable institutions, churches, convents, mosques, non-profit cemeteries, lands and buildings and improvements – actually, directly, and exclusively used for religious, charitable and educational purposes (Tax Exemptions in the Philippines), but then Ang Dating Daan is still required to pay taxes.

So, I really really pray the Mayor Duterte is a blessing from God who will prevent the wrongs in the country and defend the oppressed. I really pray the God may guide him in everything and he gets seated as the President, despite the threats.

May God bless our country!

NIPS Fruit and Nut (A Scientific Research)

NIPS is a popular chocolate snack here in the Philippines. It’s famous for its cheap, assorted-colored, milk chocolate yumminess that can usually be bought in convenience stores. One of its variations is the NIPS: Fruit and Nut in which the chocolates either contain raisins or nuts. And now, my randomness wanted to make a scientific(-ish) research regarding this snack. I will prove something people might or might not know. B/

HYPOTHESEIS:
THE FRUIT AND NUT IN NIPS: FRUIT AND NUT ARE NOT ASSORTED

Introduction:

When people think of assorted, they usually think everything in it is assorted. Nips, being an assorted colored chocolate snack is the same, especially when you think that the chocolates contain fruit or nut randomly. However, with this research, I will prove that they are not random at all! Hopefully, this research will be beneficial to human to humankind.

Benefits:

This research will benefit people in a lot of way. Preference-wise, not all people like nuts and raisins. Health-wise, some people have allergies and will have problem eating them. This research will help people avoid eating what they don’t want to eat. Since this article will prove that fruit and nut are not randomly assorted, we will attempt to conclude that you can have the freedom to choose which nips to eat because of the knowledge about which nips contain which filling.

Scope and Limitation:

Of course, this research will only focus on NIPS: Fruit and Nut. For this research’s purpose, we will use one pack of the said snack as an experiment.

Research Methodology:

Testing each of the NIPS candy, we will check which color contains which filling. We will also check if a particular color can only contain a certain filling and not the other. For example, color x should only contain nut and not raisin.

Result:

Red – Nut (5 pieces)
Orange – Nut (7 pieces)
Yellow – Nut (9 pieces)
Purple – Raisin (8 pieces)
Blue – Raisin (3 pieces)

See pictures of the samples below…

Conclusion:

We have proven that the milk chocolate does not contain fruit and nut randomly, but each color contain only either fruit or nut. For how could they be random? One piece of a certain color was colored processed from the same machine as the other chocolates of the same color. If a set of the same color was processed from the same machine, all of them will be filled only with either fruit or nut. And now that we have proven this wonderful finding, our only hope is that this research would benefit us for the good.

Thank you for reading!

Dear Diary: Losing My Self-Esteem

Lately I’ve been feeling this petty, and bratty feeling of losing self-esteem. It’s hurting me to the point that it has been affecting my actions in a negative way. I just wanna share my experience and thoughts regarding this matter…

It started when I made a song cover of Song A, and I felt good about it. Mama said it was better than the original track. I was so proud that everytime I heard my cover, it sounded so beautiful to me.  The next day, I let my ISTJ sister listen. She commented on how it was too loud and intense compared to the cool and soft way the original song was. Feeling embarrassed by that (I also think she has a point), I didn’t even let her finish and turned the song off, which she did not hear completely even today.

Lately, I have been practicing for two competitions I’m entering: Declamation and Singing. Not to brag, but those are the categories I feel pretty confident that I’m good at proven by the years of performing and winning them. Those are kinda like one of my best talents. Usually, I wouldn’t care much about opportunities and comments I receive and take it as a good advice to improve. But lately, I’ve been losing my self esteem.

This singing competition I’m joining, where I’m going to sing a duet with someone, has elements I’m not comfortable with. The song choice, the way of singing, the way of practicing are all not what I expected. The genre left me feeling a lot of times that I simply can’t sing the songs well though my partner can. Not to boast (and yes, this is a bad feeling) but I thought I was better than my partner, but lately even with mama’s (my #1 supporter) comments, my partner is better than me. As much as I want to learn how to improve myself by challenging myself into the realm that I’m not familiar with, I can’t help but tell myself that I can’t do it, I have no talent, and I get embarrassed by myself to the point that I almost cried a couple of times.

Declamation practice, however, was awesome. My feel good level was a hundred percent! I loved seeing myself do what I thought I couldn’t. I was so in the mood for declamation that I even asked mama for us to continue practice. However today, we let my ISTJ sister watch the recorded video of the practice and she comments on all opportunities I need to work on. I guess because of the lack of praise-worthy comments and me having a hang over from singing practice depression, I was trying to stop her from continuing watching (that I guess I was obviously defensive). Usually, when I feel good about what I did, I watch myself repeatedly and even criticize myself while feeling good. However today, while they continued watching, I didn’t look, I left, and I couldn’t help but cry a bit in the bathroom. I didn’t return for a while to hide the traces of tears. The sound of me declaiming became hurtful to me that it was piercing through my heart that I’m not good everytime I heard myself.

I don’t know. Yes. It’s a bratty feeling. I hate it. I want it to stop. It’s not right. And I can’t move forward while having this feeling. I’ve even been doing the power stance (raising both hands up to the sky like a victorious position), but it doesn’t work. It’s just that, losing your self-esteem is you losing your confidence on what you thought you did best. And that is a kind of feeling that will dig your grave.

But, you know what? This is wrong. All the glory is to God! I don’t own the glory if I’m “good” at singing or declaiming. It’s a God given talent that I shouldn’t feel too proud about like I’m the one who owns it. If I’m criticized, I have to take it “lightly” and just learn from it. Because again, all the glory is God’s and is not mine.

P.S. But I think, other than thinking that you’re failing at what you do best, it’s also the all-negative comments I’m getting. Haha! My ISTJ sister for example is not very used to giving compliments and usually ends up just saying all the negatives without even saying the positives. Lol

The end

Sorry for that emo thingy.

Makikinig Nalang Ako (Kay Bro Eli) Thoughts

Hello everyone!

There’s a new catchy song called “Makikinig Nalang Ako (Kay Bro Eli)” by anonymous _ posted in Youtube. For those non-English speakers, it translates to I’ll Just Listen (To Bro Eli).

The song is very cute and very catchy. The visuals are very well-made, the composition and is very cool and relaxed, And the whole song just left me repeating it over and over again. Other the song being very cute and catchy, I want to focus on how true and relateable the lyrics are. I hope that a lot of people would someday feel the same way me and my brothers feel.

The first stanza:

Nanood ako ng TV ng masumpungan
Ang isang taong may taglay na karunungan
Sinasagot ang iba’t ibang katanungan
At ito’y hindi hindi basta matututulan
Wala pa ngang five minutes nang siya’y mapakinggan
Marami na agad akong natututunan
At magmula noo’y di na tinantanan Mga sikat na programa… ni Brother Eli

I remember my parents telling me about the first time they watched Ang Dating Daan (The Old Path). They said that Papa’s office colleague introduced him to the program and since then, both of my parents were very interested in the program. They were feeling excited from the opening of the show ’till early morning when the program ends. Notes and Bible verses filled my father’s notebook which he reviewed after wards. You would be “addicted” if you may say to the program and you will feel that the question was answered just for you. That was the first time they saw a preacher who in every point he makes, will read a supporting verse from the Bible. Bro. Eli is not just all talk. When watching Ang Dating Daan, you can testify that the Bible Answers and Bro. Eli is just reading the answers from the Bible. Bro. Eli is the only preacher with a program who lets people ask questions regarding faith and the answer will be read from the Bible in a show called “Itanong Mo Kay Soriano” (Ask Soriano). The knowledge that you will acquire in just 5 minutes of watching Bro. Eli cannot be acquired by an hour of watching other shows. At the first time you watch his program, you can literally say “Wow, this guy knows the Bible from start to finish! And what he is saying is frankly true from the Bible!”. It’s true. Brother Eli does not use flowery words like other preachers, but he speaks of what is truly in the Bible whether you accept it or not. And there isn’t any biblical debate in which Brother Eli lost. Every debate shows that Brother Eli has the knowledge that came from God which is not in other preachers of false religions. You just need to open your mind and accept the wonderful explanation of the words of God that you won’t hear anywhere else. If you really want the truth that came directly from the Bible, watch Ang Dating Daan and compare what you hear from the teachings you hear in other religions.

Chorus:

Makikinig na lang ako kay Brother Eli
Manonood na lang ako kay Brother Eli
‘Di bale nang mapuyat sa sulit na palabas
Basta’t nasasagot lahat ng aking katanungan
Makikinig nalang ako kay Brother Eli
Manood nalang ako kay Brother Eli
Hindi ko titigilan kahit pa magdamagan
Sa Biblia lang ang kasagutan ni Brother Eli

If you are a person who is eager to seek the truth, and if you’re a person who is a lover of the words of God, you can literally listen to Bro. Eli all day. Like what is written in the Bible in Psalms 119: 103:

“How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

The words of God are sweet to a person who is determined to seek the true faith. Like what Bro. Eli always say, the Bible is like God’s love letter to humanity.

Love letters straight from your heart
Keep us so near while apart
I’m not alone in the night
When I can have all the love you write

I memorize every line
And I kiss the name that you sign
And darling, then I read again right from the start
Love letters straight from your heart

Like how a woman cherishes and treasures the words of her admirer in the love letter, such is the feeling of a person who loves God who also cherishes, treasures, and is delighted by the words in the Bible. More so if you hear the Biblical explanation for the true faith which you can hear from Bro. Eli, the more that you’ll understand God’s love in the Bible.

The second stanza:

Finollow ko lahat official na accounts niya
Twitter, Facebook Youtube mga blogs na kay ganda
At kay tagal tagal tagal na pala niyang
gumagawa ng public service na ibang iba
Pang international scope ang mga broadcast niya
From the east to the west at 24/7 pa
Mapa-Spanish Portuguese anomang wika,
sinisikap paglingkulan ni Brother Eli

Unlike other presiding ministers in other religions, Bro. Eli tries his very best to be approachable to everybody and for the broadcast to be easily accessible to all. Broadcast and Bible Expositions are not only in the Philippines, but also in other countries and in different languages. Not only does Ang Dating Daan run 24/7 in some channels, but learning the words of God is also accessible through the internet in forms of videos in Youtube, blogs that Bro. Eli have written himself like controversyextraordinary.com, and Twitter posts where one can actually consult and ask a question to Bro. Eli. The preaching of God’s words is non-stop from social media sites, blogs, television shows, radio, Youtube, to non-stop Bible Exposition, to weekly gatherings and thanksgivings, and it also extends to public services. In my opinion (and also my brothers’ opinion), if Bro. Eli and Kuya Daniel Razon would become an elected public servant, there would be a lot of improvement in the Philippines. Why? Because they aren’t one and they have done non-stop public services in different forms. To enumerate them, there’s the: Libreng Sakay (Free bus ride), Clinic ni Kuya (free clinic consultation and some operation), Librang Sakay sa MRT (for seniors), Libreng Biblia, Libreng College (free everything from uniforms, text books, allowances), Transient Homes, Fund-raising concerts for the Fallen 44 for example, Brigada Eskwela, and etc. Encouraging people to praise God was also implemented in the form of a praise song writing competition called “A Song of Praise” (a.k.a. ASOP) which is open to amateur song writers. Now, those are non-stop services. Non-stop meaning all of them continues everyday and it costs money to do free Public Service. Now where do they get the money you ask? Other than the contributions of the members of the church (which does not suffice for the millions of dollars needed each month since according to our faith, we don’t force people to give tithes), Bro. Eli and Bro. Daniel also have their ways to earn money through small businesses. They’re not like other preachers who does not work. I’m proud to say that our preacher is not only a preacher who after preaching, rests, but our preacher is a diligent worker even for his age. He never thought of ceasing a public service just to save money, but with God’s help, he always tries to find a way to continue preaching and to do good works.

Bridge:

Wala na akong pakialam
sa naimbentong mga paninira sa kaniya
Panatag na sa Biblia
si Brother Eli’y may unawang wala sa iba…

What causes people to refrain from listening to Bro. Eli are the cases filed against him which were dismissed, rose back from the dead by unfaithful politicians who listens to large churches, and filed against him once again. None of the cases were proven to be true. They were just filed to stop Bro. Eli from preaching or for the broadcast to cease. But, if you are open-minded enough, you have to focus on the teachings and not some demonic lies. John 7: 17 says

“Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”

Compare what Bro. Eli preaches with what other religion preaches? Which is more biblical? Which is true and which is just something the false preachers invented? Base your observation on the Bible and not just some traditions or teachings invented by man.

Dalangin ko na kahit nasaan pa man
si Brother Eli ay palaging maingatan
At sana nga ay marami s’yang maaralan
na mga taong hanap ay katotohanan
Naniniwala akong siya ay kasangkapan
masagip ang katulad kong makasalanan
Nang makilala si Bro. Eli aking naramdamang
magpasalamat sa Dios.. na buhay at tunay

We do hope that, if God wills, Bro. Eli be with us until the day Christ returns. We do hope that in his old age, God always be with him and guides him everyday. I hope that God also opens the heart of my loved ones and my dear friends so that when they listen to Bro. Eli, they would also have the same faith inside the true Church. And that they may feel that same feeling we had when we heard the God’s words. And maybe, they can also sing this song! 🙂

Sa karunungan at unawang bigay kay Brother Eli
Lagi kong masasabing TO GOD BE THE GLORY…

Because of Bro. Eli’s teachings, more people became thankful to God!

To God be the Glory! Thanks be to God for all of his love, blessings, and guidance! Amen.

 

Celebrating Christian New Year! (Nisan 1 5776)

Thanks be to God for all of His blessings and for all of the wonderful events we had for the last couple of weeks!

It was just last week, April 1-3, 2016, when the Church of God International celebrated the feast dedicated to the Lord and not to any other. Those three days of International Thanksgiving were truly a blessing for all of the brethren and to everyone who attended. Three different and God-inspired topics were discussed. My favorite one was about God’s Name, the Father, which was the first time I heard of it. No other churches have thought such wisdom about God’s name and I thank God from the bottom of my heart that He let it be known to His Church!

After a week, we now celebrate the 5776th Christian New Year which is also based on the Hebrew Calendar.

Exodus 12: 1-2

​The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,  “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.

This is the same New Year celebrated by Christ and the early Christians. This is the same New Year Christians in our time should also celebrate if we are His followers. This is the New Year God the Father had declared to be the start and end of each year.

New Years in other calendars, namely Chinese New Year, Hindi New Year, Islam New Year, and of course the world celebrated Roman Calendar’s New Year which everyone knows about, all have different dates. But are they inspired by the Christian God? They aren’t. If there is a New Year Christians should celebrate, it should be the New Year which begun when Moises and the first Church of God where freed from Egypt.

Most people also celebrate New Year by having Fireworks display, drinking, and partying. This kind of New Year celebration often leads to dangers, accidents, chaos, and casualties showing that such celebration is not God inspired.

James 3: 15-16

This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

The verse shows that where there is disorder and chaos, it is surely earthly and not from above. Unlike other ways of celebrating the New Year, Christians should celebrate it with prayers and thanksgiving to God, rejoicing for another year He had given.

I thank God for this heavenly wisdom given to us and for the, you can say “mind-blowing” teachings, which you can’t get anywhere, not even from the top universities on Earth! No other institution reveals this kind of knowledge when it comes to spirituality. And for me personally, I thank God because even though I have a lot of shortcomings and I’m not worthy, He had given me a chance to learn such knowledge only a few people on Earth knows. And I do feel His love and compassion everyday. I pray that He never let go of my hand until the end and that He helps me in all of my weaknesses that I may achieve my ultimate goal: to be with Him in eternal life. That’s my dream.

I also thank God because in addition to the celebration of the Christian New Year, He had also given another year of service in Christ to our dear preacher. Happy 52nd Birthday in the Spirit Bro. Eli! May God be with you always in times of joys and especially in times of hardships and sorrows when the world seems to go against you. Though you are the most slandered person on Earth with their lies and evil works, you are blessed and may God continue to bless you.

I couldn’t help but cry when the whole brotherhood sang “Salamat sa Dios sa isang katulad mo” (In English: Thank God for there is someone like you). I know how hard Bro. Eli’s situation is. Though he is speaking the truth, he is maligned in several ways for so many years. But with God’s help, he continues to do what is right and preach what is right. Even with his old age, he does not stop preaching his favorite subject: God’s word, and his schedule for Bible Expositions, church gatherings, etc are incredibly hectic and exhausting for someone his age and with his situation. I do pray that God always protects him and keep him away from harm, that he may always find joy in serving God despite the depressing and stressful life other people who maligns him gives him. And we all hope that if God permits, he would still be with us until the day Christ comes.

Lastly, I thank God for being given the opportunity to meet and sing with my fellow choir friends again! What a wonderful way to start the year!

And with that, again, Happy New Year to all the Christians and may we live to celebrate more if God permits. All the honor, the power, and glory be unto God forever!

Sing With Me Group

Hey,

I love singing and I love the idea of singing with total strangers. I’ve always sang with random people who had “sing with me” videos in YouTube. However, it does feel like I know them but they don’t know me. Yet we’re singing in a duet that only I am aware of!

So I just thought, isn’t it cool if you sing with a group of total strangers, collate the voices, edit them together, and voila, you have a singing group!?

So like, I was imagining: maybe a group song like a Vocaloid song, or a musical song, or etc sang by total strangers who knows the song really well! Isn’t that cute???

And because of this, I was wondering who wants to do this idea with me? Or is there any community site with this kind of idea? Please let me know in your comments. 🙂

The World’s Most Dangerous Sinkhole

I love to watch amazing facts on YouTube with my sister. I especially love Top 10 Videos which just gives you so many mind blowing facts about the world not many people know about. It’s just fascinating!

One of the searches we had fun watching though are videos about Sinkholes: the most dangerous, the largest, the most weird sinkholes in the world. And it just gives you so much insight about how stunning, amazing, but at the same time very dangerous sinkholes are. Some are due to natural activities (such as the normal sinkholes which forms huge holes in the middle of the city, eating houses and communities), some are man made (such as the sinkhole in the dam).

 

Another amazing hole (even though it’s totally off topic) is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, which is considered to be the world’s deepest hole. Though its diameter is just 9 inches, it extends up to 40,230 feet underground or 7.5 miles. It was drilled by Soviets during the Cold War era in an attempt to get closer to the Earth’s crust

Kola Superdeep Borehole

Learning from all this, we thought that though all of those holes are dangerous, nothing can beat the World’s most dangerous Sinkhole!

First of all, let’s define some words, what is a Sinkhole?

According to The Free Dictionary, the definition of a sinkhole in Physical Geology is  “a depression in the ground surface, esp in limestone,where a surface stream disappears underground”. Another definition is that it is “a place into which foul matter runs”. With those definition, let us now answer our question. What could possibly be the most dangerous depression in the surface, where the surface disappears, and where foul matter runs?

The answer is actually near us, it’s Tooth Cavities!

Kola Superdeep Borehole

According to Mayo Clinic, “Cavities are permanently damaged areas in the hard surface of your teeth that develop into tiny openings or holes.”. They are also holes which can cause huge damage to your life if we are not aware that it is the most dangerous sinkhole.

Cavity is formed from the root word “Cave”. See the resemblance? It is in fact a cave which can really hurt if it is not prevented. Just like a lot of the common sinkholes we saw on the video in which sinkholes are usually the effect of mining, Tooth cavities are also caused by mining (Refer to the picture below). Bacteria dig your teeth deeper and deeper until there is a vivid cavity on it.

Art of Miners digging the Tooth

Sinkholes can be physically dangerous. Both nature-made sinkholes, man-made sinkholes, and tooth cavities can cause dangers to the health and can be fatal. The difference is that the common sinkholes we know off will kill you in an instant. It might be deep but I don’t think it’s that deep that it’s very close to the Earth’s crust. To be more specific, according to Smithsonian.com, the Kola Superdeep Borehole has  a distance of half the distance or less to the Earth’s mantle or the Earth’s heart, which is is clearly defeated by how deep tooth cavities can go. Tooth Cavities can reach a human’s heart. According to Banner Health, poor dental hygiene can cause bacteria to grow inside your mouth, entering the bloodstream, which can cause some severe heart problems. So, while common sinkholes can kill you in a snap, Tooth cavities will make you suffer first from tooth aches, severe heart problems, and bad breathe.

Cavity Reaching the Bloodstream

What’s worse is that, even if the huge sinkholes we saw on the video can kill a lot of people, the possible victims are so much smaller than the possible victims of Tooth Cavities. Babies, Children, Young Adults, Adults, and Elderly can suffer from Tooth Cavities. Unlike common sinkholes which one should be safer considering that the place they’re standing on is sturdy, Tooth cavities can hit you wherever you are. In addition, Tooth cavities can hit you more than once as you have 32 teeth in total! You have a lot to suffer from without prevention!

Fortunately, being the most dangerous sinkhole doesn’t mean that it’s also the most inevitable. Tooth cavities can surely be avoided with the proper care and hygiene. But always remember to not underestimate this small but terrible hole, the most dangerous hole, the Tooth Cavity!

 

Customer Representative Life: I don’t like it when customers…

Hello!

I’ve been working as a Customer Service Representative here in the Philippines for some time now. I’m not tenured or anything. In fact, I’m just approaching my 2nd year in this industry. However, I believe that I gathered enough information, opinion, and thoughts to make this post.

I’m fine with helping customers. It somehow gives joy to me when they’re issue is solved and if they feel happy at the end of the call. But we all know that it is not an easy job. You need to answer different phone calls for 8 hours while also taking into consideration your metrics such as the quality of your call, customer satisfaction, and correct resolution. It is even more stressful when you get a stressful customer who is, let’s say, their attitude is not in your favor. So, here I listed things I don’t like when customers do these. I’m sure others can relate.

1) Divorced and just can’t coordinate with each other

Since divorce is legal in America, you’ll get a lot of calls regarding a request for a name change, an assumption of the account, and other adjustments due to divorce. What is frustrating is that, whether the divorce decree is finalized or not, customers of both parties does not want anything to do with each other that they somehow won’t coordinate with each other about what they want to do with the account, that their request is not possible if certain things aren’t done. For example, a had a call about the ex-wife asking me to block the ex-husband from the account. Later I found out that the divorce decree is not yet finalized. We can’t do that until it is finalized because both of them still have rights to the account. But that’s not really frustrating compared to a divorced couple who won’t coordinate with each other. For example, the ex-husband wants his name off of the account because he’s not living on the property anymore. For it to be done, the ex-wife has to assume the loan by filling up an assumption form to solely take over the account, and pay an out of the pocket closing cost. The problem is that, the customer does not think the ex-wife will fill up the form. He asks for other options to have his name removed or at least for him to assume the property and for the company to forcedly remove the ex-wife from the property before he assumes the loan, refinance, short sale the property, or just surrender the loan. The problem is that, for most options he was asking, both of them still need to sign and agree on it, in which the customer was sure his ex-wife would not sign. Also, he was already considering making the account delinquent to proceed to foreclosure so that the ex-wife would have no choice but to leave the property. It’s a chaos! The customer wanted something to be done but it can’t be done if both customers don’t agree on it. And here you are, a representative expected by the customer to do something about it when it’s them who really have to make up their minds.

2) Customers who has a lengthy problem but talks to you like you already know it on set of the call

I don’t have a problem with lengthy, unresolved issue on the customers account. I’d still be glad to help them. I do understand their frustrations but, sounding like you already know what the problem is does not help at all and it just makes the representative confused. Some customers tell you their issue without starting from the top. They just start to narrate things starting at the middle of the story, leaving you no idea about what they are saying or sometimes, what the problem is even regarding to. To get an idea, you have to read lengthy chains of notes before you understand the source, what happened, and the latest resolution to the problem. I appreciate the customers who will tell everything from top despite the length of the issue. It gives you more idea about what you needed to do.

3) Closed Minded Customers

I hate it when despite all your clear, nice, and easy to understand explanation, customers would still be saying “You’re not listening to me!” or “You don’t understand!” or “You’re not hearing me out!”. Some of them are just so closed minded that despite your repeated effort of explaining in different ways, they only want to hear what they wanted to hear and would take no other explanation different from what they wanted. It’s like all they hear from you is Blah blah blah when the explanation they needed was already said. Worse it that, they tell you that you are not listening or helping them when you already are.

4) Discrimination to off shore representatives

Once some customers here that you’re a Filipino, they feel like you can’t help them. Although yes, I know and read from different articles that out shoring call centers make customers feel unimportant, I totally understand why some of the customers feel frustrated. Especially, language barrier problems take over, and they have to deal with your accent when they already have enough problems, it’s understandable. What I don’t understand is their mindset that on shore representatives can better help them. Some customers I had tells me that on shore representatives have more access to their accounts. Or, one time, my customer had a bad signal, and he tells me that it must be because I’m in the Philippines. When in fact, on shore and off shore representatives can do just the same and also have the same systems. Yet, they don’t give you a chance to assist them.

5) After getting what they want, they say bye and hang up

I feel like a machine when they do that. After you answering their questions, they just say “Ok thanks”, and then hangs up. I understand they are pretty busy sometimes but I also wanted to end the call with proper goodbyes. I feel like after I was used, I was turned off. Haha!

6) Gets sarcastic, shouts at you, or anything that makes you get a hind that they are in a bad mood

I hate it when customers takes out their frustration on you. They start the call sarcastic or shouts from end to finish. Some customers doesn’t like the verification process and is not very cooperative for you to solve their problems faster. When they get sarcastic, you just don’t know how to respond. And when they get to shout mania mode, they feel like they would get the issue solved faster when it gets harder for you to understand them with all the shouting. I get it, their frustrated. But how they act does not help me to help them. Another reason for that is what I read from another article from Cracked that when customers keep shouting at representatives, the agent goes into defensive mode and gets a feeling that the customer is a person they no longer want to help. Can you blame us? We’re also human. If you shout at us, we’re no longer comfortable with helping you. 

Those are some of the things I don’t like when customers does them. Again, this is just on the agents side. I know we have to take the customers’ feelings into consideration, but it is also important to consider the agent too. It is best to cooperate with the agent to have the issue resolved because most of the time, they will want to help you. If you don’t help them help you, how will the issue be solved? Cooperation is necessary.

My Life as a Night Shift Customer Service Representative

Hey guys, I’ve been working as a Night Shift Customer service representative for a while. I’m not tenured but my current job is my second call center experience. I still prefer the day shift rather than the night, and a non-voice job instead of a voice. But nevertheless, it’s still a good experience. So, I want to share it with you. I’ll also just enumerate them randomly. Haha

Pros:

1) Unlike other jobs, night shift voice jobs pays you $$$$ very well. If you’re hungry for money this is the job for you. Voice jobs are already high paying, more so if it’s on the night shift where there are night differentials as part of your salary. In addition, customer service jobs usually have incentives, raffles, prizes, and recognitions.

2) No traffic. Here in the Philippines, it’s aaaaalways traffic. But on the night shift, you’ll get to your workplace in a much lesser time. Not to mention, you won’t experience the sun’s heat on the way to work, making you look more fresh on the job.

3) Unlike other jobs in which your work might be pending and you would have to continue it on the next shift, and you have to think about reports for your boss and all those things, a customer representative’s job is more simple in a way. After a call, you won’t have to worry about the concern anymore, it’s going to be an entirely different call. After your shift, it’s another day tomorrow. So you don’t have any undone works.

4) It feels like you have a lot of time or your weekends feel longer. You know why? At night shift, you’re awake and active. Once you get home from your job, since it’s daytime, and you feel like doing stuff at day time, you’d probably still be active. If you have not fully transformed to a night person who would still sleep at night even on weekends, then it would feel like you have longer weekends. In my experience, for example, I’m awake on the Friday shift at night, come Saturday morning and it’s already weekend, you’re in the weekend mode (which if you want to enjoy your weekend as much as you can and give lesser importance to sleep, you’d probably wait for the night again ’till you go to sleep since you’d probably want to sleep together with your family), so you’re also awake and active for the whole Saturday until you sleep at night. Sunday comes and you’re also awake in the morning and sleep at night. By Monday you’re also awake by day (and maybe nap a little), ’cause it’s not until night that you have to go to work. So it will feel like your weekends are: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

5) No voice or laryngitis is enough reason for sick leave. Unlike office works, you would need your voice for this type of job. Having no voice or having a hoarse voice is already a good reason for a sick leave. It wouldn’t be considered a sick leave in other jobs.

Cons:

1) Working at night is seeing your family who is working at day time 1-4 hours a day in average depending on your job schedules. It’s like returning home from work in the morning to see them go to work, and vice versa. The only chance you’d get to be with your loved ones and sleep together with them is on the weekend. And again, you have limited time for each other on the weekdays.

2) You’ll probably be sleep deprived. You have to sleep at night but your mind is excited that it’s already daytime, the natural time for you to be active. Hence, you’ll probably be active by night AND by day. By the time you realize you have to go to sleep, there are only a few hours left.

3) Naturally, it’s harder to sleep by day due to the sunlight, the noises, and your mind being aware that it is daytime.

4) You’ll learn to count how many hours you have left to sleep. For me, even if I haven’t gone to sleep yet, I usually panic when I’m thinking “Oh no, x hours to go and I have to wake up!”, and I haven’t even slept yet! I also noticed that in a day job, even if you have to wake up by 6am, for example, and you slept by 12mn or 1am, it’s alright and it feels pretty normal. But when I was already on the night shift, I panic at how many hours I have left to sleep.

5) It feels like there’s no vivid line between yesterday and today. In the day shift, once you sleep and it passes midnight and you wake up in the morning, it clearly distinguishes yesterday from today. But on the night shift, you go home from work on a tuesday morning,for example, sleep, and wake up also at tuesday night. So even if you slept well, there’s no vivid difference between the two days. It feels like you just took a nap.

6) Having a VL or Vacation Leave between weekdays is kinda sad if you think about it. Let’s say your VL is Wednesday night. From your Tuesday shift, you go home at Wednesday morning, being on VL mode. You don’t go to work on Wednesday night, but if you think about it, you have to go to work tomorrow, Thursday night. So it’s kinda like, “I was in the office Wednesday morning, and now I’m in the office again Thursday night”. Worst is if because you wanted to sleep, after the Tuesday shift, you sleep at Wednesday morning. When you wake up on the afternoon or at night, you’d probably miss sleeping at night so you’ll be sleeping again at Wednesday night with you family. Come Thursday, preparing for the night shift, you have to sleep once again in the afternoon to reserve energy. So it’s like 3 sleeps in one VL. If you don’t want to be all sleeps though and you just want to sleep at night, you’ll have to be in Zombie mode, staying awake for 24 hours (woke up at night, sleeping at night).

7) Prone to getting fat. Other than stress, and high salary as the reason for always eating on the night shift, there is also a problem with how many times you eat. On my previous job, I noticed that I eat 2 lunches! I eat lunch at work (at night), and when I go home, I also eat lunch with my family. So you’ll have two lunches, a breakfast, a dinner, and if there are snacks, then that’s even worse.

8) Disturbing your body clock. Sleeping at daylight on the weekdays and sleeping at night on the weekends disturbs your body clock. It will make your body find sleeping at a specific time more difficult. It could tell you to be active by day because you do it on the weekends, making you sleep deprived in the weekday when you actually need sleep at day.

Bonus:

Working night shift might have a major change in your life, coz it occurred to me at one time. If you’re already used to the night shift, the sun or the light will feel like it’s hurting your eyes, causing your eyes to grow tired, hence making you sleepy. While at night, there’s no intense light so your eyes doesn’t hurt and you’re wide awake. It alters how you get sleepy, the sun becomes a sleepiness factor.

It looks like I have a lot of ramblings about this kind of job (having more cons than pros here haha). I have to admit though, it is a life changing experience. Because working as a customer service representative enhances a lot of skills: Multi-tasking, critical thinking, problem solving, people relationship, and my English. Haha! So I’m happy I got to increase my skills a little. However, I’d still be dreaming of the normal day shift.

ヾ(*´∀｀*)ﾉ

Some memes for fun: