Stories That Coach | Sonnie's Porch

Make 2009 A Better Year

January 1st, 2009

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As we celebrate the new year with festivities, in another part of the world, they are observing it with air raids, bombs, fear, and uncertainty.

Blame it not on Israel for it’s continued air raid and ground assault, neither the Hamas for the rockets fired. This conflict had it’s root from the decisions made by one man.

A look at history will help us make better and conscious decision for 2009.

Both the Arabs and Jews look at Abraham as their father, and both are monotheist. But why are they at war with each other?

The problem goes beyond the establishment of the nation Israel on what the Palestinians claim as their land.

It goes back to the ancient times when God promised Abraham that through his seed, God will establish a great nation (Gen 15). The promise, from the Jewish perspective, becomes a reality through Isaac and Jacob. On the Arabs perspective, the promised became a reality thru Ishmael .

Blog Hack & A Wedding

December 23rd, 2008

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dess Finally, this blog is up and kicking again after 2 or 3 days in hiatus. This site was hacked and malicious scripts were injected to it’s root folders resulting to missing php’s. Thanks to Jez for his assistance.

As you probably noticed, Sonnie’s Porch was in semi-hibernate mode for about 2 weeks, providing only short updates and picture sharing. Blame it to budget preparation and business planning, blogging & work, at times, don’t blend well. I hope with the long Christmas vacation, I’ll be providing regular updates with value adding content that everyone expected.

Let me start by blogging about the wedding of a person dear to us. As I shared in my Plurk page, the wedding made me teary eyed for 2 reasons:

I remembered my own wedding and the vow I made to my wife 16 years ago- As I see Bryan, the groom, wept as they exchange vow’s, I remembered myself weeping as I see my bride walk the aisles 16 years ago.
Likewise, the bride, Dess, is dearly loved by wifey and myself.

Shaken To The Core

October 27th, 2008

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I am not talking about the global economy, which I planned to blog about with the recent effect of the crisis to Asian markets and currencies.

Rather, I’m referring to myself who was rattled when our little princess was admitted to a hospital for suspected dengue fever. If confirmed, she’s the first case in our condo/community. I also suspected that she was bitten by a dengue carrying mosquito in their school, where my daughter spent 60% of daytime. We intend to write the school authorities about this unfortunate incident since my girl missed the second periodical exam and spending her sem break in the hospital.

This is the first time my daughter was hospitalized, and it has shaken me. I have to sort out my emotions and distinguish Faith from positive thinking, and positive thinking from self denial. This kind of experience may be peanuts to some, but to me, this is an uncharted zone. I have fought several battles and the scars have caused me to be immune to pressure, except this time when my child was involved.

The Prejudices Of Life

August 16th, 2008

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While most are reeling from the effects of fuel increase, not all are bothered.

Having started my profession in people management, I was introduced to the different mindset of people from different social status.

In marketing, for example, to reach the poor, the price of a product or service must be extremely affordable. Earn by the volume, quality is secondary. On the other hand, the middle class gives strong consideration on quality, price may not be the issue, but the product or service must be worth the price. The rich and the super rich do not mind spending, but the need for “prestige” when buying a product or availing a service must be achieved.

The clash of this mindset have often result to prejudices to each other.