Seth Godin and Tom Peters said it all. This sums up why I blog. I will write a detailed blog post soon on how blogging has changed my life. Maybe I will inspire more people to blog as well. I have taught some of my friends how to blog, I have “inspired” them. I recently found out that “some” of them have been copying everything I do. But right now that does not irritate or annoy me one bit (although at first I did felt that way)- it actually makes me happy to see them “copy” me because it’s really flattering and I know that I will always be the first one and the original one. It gives me joy to think that I have also helped change their lives. You know who you are dear/s. 
Blogging Changed My Life
What did I do?
Okay I just received an email from a Mother of a blogger who frequents this blog. I don’t want to mention this blogger’s name because I don’t want to fire up her mother. I understand her mother’s sentiments but I just want to clear a few things up. And I don’t want to reply to her email too because she’s “keeping a close watch” and my email address has been “blocked to date.” And again – I don’t want to make an enemy of someone’s Mom.
So here’s the email that I’m talking about. I published it here so the mother will know that it’s her email that I’m talking about. And to let her know that she’s the first person who did this to me. Apparently she’s checking out my blog too so this is how I’m going to communicate with her.
Read her email first then read what I have to say in the end:
Mary Jane,
This is ****’s Mom. Dad and I do not find it appropriate for an adult to be corresponding or soliciting a facebook profile from a young child. I realize that she blogged you back in the fall and that she is very precocious for her age. This child is not even a teenager yet. Her exact age you may not have known but you did know that she was a minor judging from your correspondence with her. She knew better than to give out personal information, including her name. Something we have reiterated with her about.
Per your blog and information I have viewed on the internet, you claim to be of Christian faith and in education. Therefore I can expect the correct response from you by NOT continuing to befriend a child from another country of which the parents have not granted permission.
I ask that you do the right thing and no longer respond to my ‘very’ minor child or contact her in any way possible; including making responses on the blog she invited you in on. Children are very impressionable and as a parent, I have cautioned her long before she violated her father’s and my wishes by writing to a stranger…you. Something we are working on but need your assistance by not responding to future inquiries. You have adult friends. Write to them. Not to these children. They have great community teachers, involved parents, and youth groups for them to speak to.
I will pull the plug on these types of activities the day I hear or see another line of communication from someone I have not met and that she does not know. I am sure that you can understand my concern and will honor my request. This child has many friends, and will continue to make friends in everything she does. Her outgoing personality and winning smile will take her far; I just don’t want to see it happen before she is age appropriate and mature enough to handle what the world can dump in her lap.
I will be keeping a close watch. Your email address has been blocked to date.
Not pleased.
Let’s call these frequent visitor of my blog “Young Child” (that’s what her mom called her). I think she’s 12-13 years old. First of all, for the benefit of those who don’t know, Young Child was the one who visited my blog first and left me numerous comments. And being the NICE blogger that I am, I always make it a point to reply to my visitors by replying to the comments that they leave me. I reply through email and/or writing a comment too. It’s like SOP for us bloggers right? We do that because we’re nice and we appreciate people reading our posts and taking the time to leave us comments. So back to the topic. Young Child is a frequent visitor and she sent me emails and even if I’m a busy working girl I see to it that I reply to her emails too. Because Young Child is very friendly. And she was asking for advise. Yes she was asking for advise about friendship and boy problems. I am not a guidance counselor and I sensed that she was “young” so those advises were wholesome and appropriate for someone young. I mean I went through all that before too! But eventually I stopped replying to her emails because I got busy and I had tons of stuff to do.
Now let’s go to this FaceBook business. So Young Child’s email address is on my contacts list (together with everyone else’s). When I signed up for FaceBook, what I did was I used FaceBook’s application which enables me to send invitations to my friends and contacts’s email addresses that are on my email account’s contacts list. And Young Child got that invitation too. Along with everyone else’s. It’s only an invitation and I am not FORCING anyone to be my friend on FaceBook. Get that? I’m explaining this because I want to clear things up that I am not targeting Young Child alone. I don’t effing care if people will respond to that invitation or not.
Yes I am a Roman Catholic and I was educated at a Catholic school so I am honoring your request of not corresponding with your daughter anymore. In fact I haven’t emailed her or visited her blog in a long time. But she on the other hand has been sending/forwarding me emails almost every day. Just ask her. And as far as I remember I haven’t replied to those emails at all.
And I don’t really understand what you mean when you wrote that I “shouldn’t continue to befriend a child from another country whose parents have not granted permission.” You mean I have to get permission from every blogger’s parents to befriend their son or daughter now? Is that how it works there? I thought your country is a free country. Or is it just within your family? Whatever I don’t want to generalize. And why use the words “from another country?” Do you have anything against people from other countries? Do you have anything against Filipinos? Why did you say that? But be assured that I AM NOT CORRESPONDING WITH YOUR DAUGHTER ANYMORE.
Yes I know I am a stranger blah blah. Your daughter is a stranger to me too you know. Yet I wasted my time replying to her emails. And why does she spend too much time online anyway. Doesn’t she have people to talk to that she makes it up by trying to make friends with bloggers like me? Think about that for a minute.
I didn’t mean any harm to your daughter. I am a good person who enjoys blogging and making friends online. And in case you don’t know I am not the only person who does. Just check out other people’s blogs. I know you are parents and you’re just protecting your child. I understand that. But do you really have to be rude to me? I think you have read of too many suicides, cyber bullying or those kinds of stuff that bad people do online. But I am not one of those “bad people.” I am not a bad person. I just wanna clear that up.
I don’t even know if you and your daughter are really who you say you are. I have a good part of my life and personality written all over this blog and I bet you know lots of things about me already. But I don’t know a thing about you. How would I know that you’re even for real? That you’re not one of my stalkers? How can I be sure that you’re not a bad person? My parents will be concerned if they read about this too. And you will get me in trouble as well. You see, it goes both ways.
I understand everyone have to protect their privacy and security online. That’s why even if you read lots about me here in my blog. You won’t find my exact address here or where I work or anything really personal. I value my privacy. There are lots of sick people out there. And I’m not even sure if you’re not one of them.
So with all that said I hope you understand my side of the story. Your email adress has been blocked too.
What do you have to say about these guys?
My Goals
Want to document my plans and goals for this year here in my blog. Will look at this by the end of the year to see if I did accomplish everything – which I plan to.
1. Be healthy and go back to being slim. I’m looking for Yoga classes here in Iloilo and and then I’m going to enroll. Start exercising everyday. Be healthy. I am getting heavier and it’s quiet alarming. I now officially have an undeniably awful-looking paunch (which Tim points out to me everyday). I want to get rid of it as soon as possible because I can’t fit into my old clothes anymore (and which is a waste because I have so many old clothes!) I want to fit into my old clothes! And every time we have our photo ops I find it really hard to hide the paunch. LOL. So I have finally started dieting. No more chocolates, cakes, ice creams, curls and junk food for me now. Well maybe just once a week. LOL. I won’t binge anymore. I will only eat when I’m hungry. I will only eat “on time.” I don’t wanna be chubby anymore. Hehehe.
2. Learn to speak, read and write in Spanish. I’m learning how to write and speak in Spanish along with Tim. I am starting to get serious in this stuff. I’m trying to learn a phrase or two everyday. Tim’s bought a book. I’m studying online. We want to speak acceptable Spanish by the end of the year. We love and adore the Spanish language. Not only is it a romantic language, it’s also widely spoken around the world. And it’s a part of our heritage. My goodness our family names are in fact Spanish if you’ve noticed. My Lola Mamang knows how to speak Spanish. I love listening to people speak that language. Me and Tim want to be linguists. It’s our dream.
3. Enroll at CAP College. I am going back to school this year! Yes you read it right. My second ultimate dream, one of the things I want to achieve/fulfill before I die – will finally be put in motion this year. Hopefully there won’t be any hitches. I’m not listening to any discouragements from anyone. I plan to continue my studies while working at the same time. But wait, before anyone gets the wrong idea, just wanna clear up that I do love and enjoy my job! I mean who wouldn’t? Nothing beats working at home. And honestly I earn more than you, if not you then the person next to you (this applies only to people living in the Philippines. LOL) And there are many out there who have degrees but still don’t have jobs, or if they do have jobs they’re not happy with it or usually it’s not related to the degree they’ve finished. It’s just that I really want to finish college and get that hard-to-get diploma. It’s like an obsession to me. Just so everyone knows, I plan to enroll at CAP College the pioneer in Distance Education here in the Philippines. CAP College was patterned after the “open university” concept of education which is already well-established and widely accepted in more advanced countries of Europe, Australia, Canada, the United States and Asia. If anyone wants to learn more about CAP College just click here. Mamang suggested this college to me. And I know going to school at CAP College won’t interfere with my work. In fact it will actually help me with my work. I feel that it would be much much better for me if I enroll at CAP College instead of enrolling at the universities and colleges here in Iloilo. Aside from just learning my degree here at home and online, with a little person to person interaction which will only be during final examinations, I know that I will learn a lot more than those students who physically go to school and sit at classrooms and listen to other people talk. I don’t have anything against teachers (my mother is a teacher) but for me I learn a lot better if I study by myself, not by listening to other people talk or by doing assignments and reports. I had more than one professor who just assigned reports to us for the whole semester and then just sat in the back of the classroom and listened to me and my classmates’ reports (so what happened was me and my classmates were teaching each other and all the professors did was just kinda supervise us giving a little input here and there). In fact, I think distance learning is a lot better. We get to really learn and study whether we like it or not — at our own pace. Then we will really deserve the grades we get, not because of some professor or teacher’s judgement or whim. This is MY opinion so if anyone disagrees – I don’t really care. In my point of view, everyone should earn their degrees through distance learning instead. Wanna know why I said that? Feel free to ask me. My reasons will be more understandable if you talk to me, not by just reading it here.
4. Be an active member of the CFC Singles for Christ. Right now every Sunday you will find me not only with Tim but also together with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am building a blog for them now using WordPress too. I also want to help our less privileged brothers and sisters not only here in Iloilo but also in other places. I also want to help spread God’s words and God’s love not only to young people like me but also to everyone who will listen. Being with the SFC will help me fulfill my dream of helping others. See I’m not really a selfish person.
That being said, I have an awful lot of things to do this year. This stuffs will keep me very busy. But it’s better to be busy than not right? I have a life, unlike other people. LOL. I am currently researching more about the things I need to enroll at CAP College then I’m planning to accomplish and gather all the requirements needed so I could finally enroll and start studying. All these I will do while I’m also working. I will send myself to school. I will be paying for my tuition fee. So I better study well and hard. Then next year I will start fulfilling my dream of having my own virtual assistance company. Nothing is impossible right? I thank the Lord for all the blessings I have received. And for all the blessings to come. Hope He will help me in my journey of fulfilling my dreams.
The Art of Self-Promotion – 5 PR Tips
I am an oDesk member so I usually get newsletters in my email from them. I found this very useful article earlier so I decided to repost it here in my blog with the proper linkbacks of course. Hope nobody sues me for doing this. LOL
Public relations-that’s when giant corporations pay someone to explain away their massive oil spill, right? Or when movie stars hire a fancy agency to get them on magazine covers? Well, sure, but when you boil it down, PR is the art of getting your message-and yourself-favorable attention in pursuit of your goals. Your goal is to advance your career, and there are ways to promote yourself without using Angelina Jolie’s “people.” Here are five ways:
1. Maintain a professional blog and offer valuable content to your target clients.
Do some research and come up with unconventional conclusions. Check out free, easy-to-use blog platforms such as typepad.com and blogger.com. And we can’t emphasize this enough-spellcheck before you post, and post with some regularity! Need help setting up a professional-looking blog? Trade services with a talented friend-or use oDesk to hire a WordPress expert or graphic designer for a quick project.
2. Website. Website. Website!
It’s easy, inexpensive and pretty much the minimum of professionalism in most fields. Take advantage of the tons of free tools and tutorials to build and maintain a web presence. Link back to your oDesk profile using one of the customized links so people can easily review your profile and hire you (do the same on your blog!). Need help? Trade services with a friend who knows web design or is a skilled writer who can edit your resume and other copy. Failing that, find that help on oDesk.
3. Be social.
Promote your online presence through social media. Create a free Facebook page that’s suitable for professional consumption (add that oDesk referral link!). Let your network know that you’re available to do work. Use a free Twitter account to send good information to friends and colleagues, keeping yourself in their minds when they need to get the job done. Tweet about professional information, news and good resources-no irritating “Mmm … cheeseburger” clutter. Follow twitters of other professionals in your field to stay on top of trends and news and involved in the conversation.
4. Make yourself the expert.
Conduct research and write an article or presentation about something unique in your professional field. Put it on your blog and Facebook page and tweet about it. PowerPoint it for free posting on SlideShare.com. Link it all to your oDesk profile. Have your friends and professional network Digg it to drive traffic.
5. Leave a comment.
Wherever potential clients might be following the professional conversation, get your voice in there. Post your reaction, with a link back to your site or blog, on blog posts and news articles in your field. Do not just say “good article!” or “I agree!” Have something salient to add, showing that you’re a smart professional who follows developments and synthesizes new conclusions. And run that spellcheck before you start throwing around “salient” and “synthesize.”
You work hard, you polish your skills, you know your stuff-now make sure as many people as possible know it!
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Mary Jane's Niche by Mary Jane Cabrera is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.