Your Questions Answered

(reposted welcome note from February 15, 2010.  Click here  to view 2010 article) Welcome!  This page was originally created to tackle different questions raised by our students at  The Language Hub .  I would come across all sorts of queries from students (IELTS, English Grammar, cooking, travel, you name it) then I'd discuss the answer to their questions in writing, post it here and send them the link to this site. I really just wanted to put everything in one place so I wouldn't have to keep on repeating myself. Pretty soon, I began writing about varied subjects and had it published on different websites. Just to clarify, the URL  precise knowledge  is not a product of an inflated ego or grand delusion of having a “precise knowledge” on things  - it was prompted by a need to come up with a URL ASAP, and everything that I entered was denied. All I needed at the time was a name – I tried everything, and you know how it is -- when you’...

So much has been said about this subject, and the advice often come from psychologists and science. Here  are some helpful tips on  how to handle our teenagers at home, coming straight from the hands-on experience of a mother.  Children are almost like angels when they are young – they do as they are told, their world is centered around you, and you pretty much have control of everything that goes on with them.  But things change when they become teenagers – that age when they discover that their bodies are changing and their minds and emotions float in between puberty and maturity. They are stuck in the faintness of being in the middle, and wonder “shall I act like a a kid, or shall I now act like an adult?”  They discover a bigger world out there and don’t really need mommy and daddy to be there all the time. Our angels suddenly become someone else, and we are stunned at what is happening.  So how should we handle our teenagers at home?  Keep our Coo...

Are you searching for a way to track your international packages?  Here's how you can do it. It may have happened to you, too  -- you shipped a package outside of the United States, received your receipt from USPS, and tucked it away.  A few days passed and you find yourself wanting to know where your package is.  You retrieved the receipt, entered the set of digits which you thought was the tracking number, and voila,,,no result!  So you thought it may be another set of numbers--and you tried inputting it, too.  But no...still no result!  You tried and tried…and tried…and to your great frustration, you did not get any results at all.  That happened to me.  I sent out a package to Australia and was given a receipt with some numbers encircled by the USPS staff.  I went home assuming that those encircled numbers were the USPS Tracking Number, but those numbers never worked!  And because my attempts on the USPS website were a...

A consumer's review of the 2015 moview Divergent.  One of the things that pushed me to read Divergent was curiosity.  The movie looked tempting to watch and the synopsis was catchy as well.  I also have very high expectations as I already knew that it fared well in the New York bestseller’s list.  I purposely did  not watch the movie as I wanted to read the book first.  Divergent tells the story of 16-year-old Beatrice who needed to choose a faction in a post-apocalyptic society that classifies their citizens according to their dominant   value or disposition.   Their civilization is divided into 5 factions -- Abnegation for the citizens who are selfless; Candor for those who are honest; Amity for the peace-loving, Erudite for the intellectuals and Dauntless for the people who are brave.   Beatrice’s family is from Abnegation but she grew up knowing that she is not naturally selfless. The book started with Beatrice agonizing ...

Life sure changes fast. I haven't attended to this blog for a while and when I came back, I had to surf around for a few minutes to familiarize myself with the new layout as Blogspot altered it.   I went to the link I previously posted about writing reviews, and for the life of me,  I couldn't find  the way to log in.  The homepage changed.   And when I tried to access the links to my previous work, I couldn't get directed to it anymore -- the host websites also modified the links? Close to panic, I checked on my latest posts on this blog to make sure I still have (at least some of) my articles, and I realized I was still left with a lot of them.  Here are some: The World's Largest Chocolate Bar Foie Gras -- Love It or Hate It Gourmet Salts in Restaurants A Perfect Kiss or A Perfect Meal?  

I'm back!  It's been a while, and I truly miss posting on this blog.  Life in California is truly different from the life I led back home, but no complaints.  :)  The transfer and adjustment had been difficult, but the plusses still outweighed the minuses .  Life here is far more difficult  -- maintaining a full-time job, doing house chores and running your own errands, believe me, can be very challenging.  But then, there's better weather, better income, life with fam, an upgraded way of life, plus better future--all of these outweighs the difficulties.  It's just a matter of perspective, really.    Two years has passed...I just felt that it's about time to settle down and go back to my first love....writing.

Eating out…who doesn’t love it? I love to write about a lot of things—life, love, kids, fashion, writing, cooking, celebrities, businesses and almost all kinds of topics.   But I didn’t imagine how fun it is to talk about eating out and restaurants.  For the past six months I talked about the ins and outs of restaurants everyday, m aintaining a restaurant apparel blog somewhere in the U.S.  So I talk about restaurant news , restaurants and health, restaurant marketing, restaurant management, chefs, food, beverages, recipes —you name it…everyday. I'm Genevieve G ., I'm Jandi ( I could be a ghostwriter , too, remember?).    And for some reasons, I was appointed a penname of Jennifer L .  (I kinda hope it's because of the sultry, sexy JLo, but I doubt it).    Here are some of them:  Restaurant Food and Drinks Trend For 2012 Using Your Restaurant's Free Wi-fi Service To Maximize Your Sales Calorie Counts Soon...

I love flambés.  I used to take great delight watching our chefs at Cebu Plaza Hotel (now Marco Polo Plaza Cebu Hotel ) pour alcohol to their hot pan (steak, crepe, fruits and all others) so they would be able to create a burst of flames right there in the middle of the restaurant, in front of all the guests.  No, I don’t like the danger it brings, but I do love the smell of burning food and the wonderful sight of chefs expertly navigating their way through the routine.  And yes,, it was a great diversion from the yawn most of us Sales Account Managers had while entertaining clients.  It was during those moments when I fully realized that anything done in excess can really be stifling.  I used to really love dining out, go to parties, cocktails and premieres—it was a job any girl would really love (I was 25 back then).  But when it came to the point when we were required to entertain our corporate clients three times a day, fifteen times a week, on top ...

How do you cope with a broken heart?  There are a lot of ways, actually, but there’s one that I always say—just see it through.  Give yourself time to grieve, and see it through.  Do not attempt to skip the grieving process, else you’d only see yourself trip a second time. (I just read this somewhere—a John Grisham book, I think...he talked about grieving and I connected it to lost love.  Crazy reference, I know, but it makes sense, right?)   But if you want to laugh about it, here’s a funny take on The 22 Stages of a Broken Heart and moving on.  I wrote THIS ARTICLE  last April for a friend whose heart got ripped to pieces by a lost love.  She’s much, much better now--she read this article and managed expectations.  :)  Have fun!   ( note: when you click THIS ARTICLE and the page says FORBIDDEN , that means the publisher blocked the link.  Bring your cursor to the space beside the last character of the URL...

Who would have thought the word facebooking would actually become a legitimate word?  So many rules are changing, it’s definitely harder not to be updated these days. But that’s not my point here, really.  :)   I’m more interested now to discuss how facebooking affects how we all feel when we open it.  To the young ones, there might not be any at all; or if there is, I never really knew about it.  But ahhh, to those people my age (I’ve spoken to about fifty of them), there’s just too many stuff that goes on inside of us every time we spend too much time on Facebook.  It’s not really all negative, there’s just this kaleidoscope of emotions that many of us do not wish to handle.  I wrote THIS FACEBOOK ARTICLE   exactly a year ago…now, it might interest you to know that five of my best friends do not care to check their Facebook accounts anymore.  Or so it appears -- if they do check it, they make sure to spend...

When you start hitting 25, your friends all begin to get married and you start getting wedding invitations here and there.  I’m 41 now, and those invitations just keep coming.  I guess my kind of circle loves to get married late.  The girls are exited, the boys are…well, sometimes not too excited, uncertain even,  but willing to go through the hassle of the entire preparation hullabaloos.  I have another good friend who’s getting married this December, I just thought of sharing these articles I once made for a wedding planner in the United States.  This time, I took on the name of the website's title, The Bargaining Bride –yes, that kind who haggles, negotiates and bargains their way to a better deal.  Not all articles under the name are mine, but here are those that I have authored:  Your Wedding Colors Wedding Themes Wedding Videography Wedding Videos Wedding Photos Engagement Photos Your Dream Wedding Through Wedding Rentals The Importanc...

. It's been a year since I closed Divine Help , our maids and yayas agency, but I still get a lot of calls from mommies and homemakers about problems with their househelpers.  I know, I know....the world is evolving and the more modern our world has become, the harder it is to get trusted maids for our homes.  I know exactly how it feels when our maid suddenly decides to quit.  I used to cry (literally cry, my world comes crashing down on me) when yaya says goodbye, especially when the kids were smaller. I can handle all kinds of stress --an angry boss, a yelling client, a fight with my husband, bickering kids--but not a household full of three kids with no helper.  I've always been a working mom, you see (excuses, excuses).  And Filipina moms are exceedingly, truly dependent on yayas (that's a Filipino term for nanny) -- more of a cultural thing, really. So here's something I want moms to understand about maids and yayas -- they've changed.  Ev...

On this page you will see that I have a lot of articles credited to my name.  But I’m a ghostwriter, too --a writer who is paid to write articles that are officially credited to another person.  I write blogs, product reviews (long product reviews, that is), copies and press releases under another person’s name for a fee.  I can’t say it’s something I totally enjoy doing, but if only for the love of writing and seeing the result of my work afterwards , then I can say I get some sort of fulfillment in doing it.  (Not to mention getting paid, of course.) So, after getting due permission from my former clients, I’m posting here some of the ghostwriting jobs that I had – I could be Jandi , the Bargaining Bride (although not all that's under her name were done by me), Jennifer L . , Ryan or just plainly the good old Product Reviewer .  I talk about weddings, food trivia, restaurant news, F&B management tips (my client’s from the restaurant industry), health and...

As part of man's crazy nature,  we never get contented.  We constantly, constantly look for more in our lives.  I have come across a lot of questions about love, life and heartaches  (primarily because I have plenty of experiences on those)  and  though I never claim to be an expert, I always have a thing or two to share.  Read THIS ARTICLE  and be inspired. ( note: when you click  THIS ARTICLE  and the page says   FORBIDDEN , that means the publisher blocked the link.  Bring your cursor to the space beside the last character of the URL then press enter..and you'll be taken to the page.   URL:  http://beyondjane.com/relationships/this-stuff-about-dream-guys/ PRESS ENTER   ) .

While I have had a lot of writing jobs to show off, I have never really tried to edit professionally. My experience has been limited to editing high school articles in my high school paper (I was Features Editor back then – two of my dearest bestfriends were Editor-In-Chief and Managing Editor) and making corrections on my IELTS students’ writing tests. Well, not until recently.  I came across a wonderful woman who has a lot of fantastic ideas about memory enhancement and brain nutrition, and I helped her organize her thoughts for her already long-standing website.  We made her write-ups more spontaneous and engaging to her readers.  The challenge in editing her work, other than infusing accurate grammar and correct sentence structures with fluid thoughts, was to make sure to keep her views and ideas intact.   And retain her very own method of writing. We have finished the job, the 14 articles edited and enhanced. Now, three weeks later, I went back to he...

On this page you will see that I have a lot of articles credited to my name.  But I’m a ghostwriter, too --a writer who is paid to write articles that are officially credited to another person.  I write blogs, product reviews (long product reviews, that is), copies and press releases under another person’s name for a fee.  I can’t say it’s something I totally enjoy doing, but if only for the love of writing and seeing the result of my work afterwards , then I can say I get some sort of fulfillment in doing it.  (Not to mention getting paid, of course.) So, after getting due permission from my former clients, I’m posting here some of the ghostwriting jobs that I had – I could be Jandi , the Bargaining Bride (although not all that was done by her was done by me), Jennifer L . , Ryan or just plainly the good old Product Reviewer.  I talk about weddings, food trivia, restaurant news, F&B management tips (my client’s from the restaurant industry), health and nut...

Oh, so you're a sushi / sashimi lover too?  Which one has the nori?  How do you call the one with the fish toppings?  How about the square ones?  Know the various types so you can easily spot the ones you love meters away from the buffet table.   Read more here.  

I got converted in Boracay last 2002.  From being a party-goer, indifferent to nature to becoming a nature-loving fanatic.  Or was that maybe because I aged?  J  I made this article for a client, detailing why Boracay rocks.  Read more here .  (and by the way, I need to put it on record that I borrowed this photo from a good college friend who's always been great in taking pictures.  I tried to ask for his permission by getting in touch with him several times-I saw this photo in his Facebook albums, teehee- but he seems real busy lately.  So, my dear good friend, if you happen to recognize this photo in Google or elsewhere, please know that I did try to ask for your permission.  ♥ you. )

So you’re new in Triond and Online Writing?   Welcome!  I, myself,  am  less-than-a-year-old at Triond,  and I can say it’s certainly  been a captivating,  exciting, mountainous  walk.  I had to discover a lot of things by myself,  researching and learning things along the way.  I’d like to share with you a few facts  (including the links where I got them)  that a new Triond member needs to know.  You need to have a blog before you can have a Google Adsense account.   Part of Triond’s familiarization (or would you call that orientation?)   is that a writer can integrate  his Google Adsense account to Triond and maximize his earnings  once he has submitted his 5 th article.  But what they didn’t say is that you can’t do that without a Google Adsense account.  And you can’t have an Adsense Account without a blog. (And yes,  Triond leaves all that to us to figure out.)...

Yes, call them crazy (or not), but some people are buying and selling land on the moon!!   Read the FULL STORY  here.