Thank You 2011, Hello 2012

Things that I cherished that happened this year:

• Started a new venture, moving away from the traditional office work
• Started doing part-time jobs that are not IT related to enhance my other skills
• Started the process of having more church responsibility
• Learned who my real friends are and moved on from so-called friends
• Watched Breaking Dawn Part 1, craving for the second part
• 
  

Things I'm looking forward to this 2012:

• Last movie installment of Twilight
• S.O. coming here
• New church office
• Work-related training
• 
  

 
Things I should do this 2012:

• Daily exercise!
• Better time management
• 
  

Life and Online

For those who are always online like me......

Happy New Year everyone :)

Website Logins Tips

As I was checking the login features of my current project, I was thinking of more efficient ways to handle password generation specially for the first login of the user. Browsing the web for ideas, I found these tips which is really useful in designing a website login.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

This is a good read to start the new year right

Learn from yesterday. Take all your past mistakes, and failures and use them for motivation in order to gain an advantage to succeed on your new ventures. Don't let the fear of committing another mistake or failing again stop you from trying new adventures and new opportunities.

Live for today. Never live for the past, live in the moment and seize the sensible opportunities presented to you. Be willing to take risks, as risk are one of the most important keys to living for today, and never let anyone, including yourself stop you from achieving what you know you can.

Hope for tomorrow. Make plans, set goals, and follow your dreams. Too many of us limit our hopes and ourselves by not dreaming big enough, or hoping big enough. Dream as big as you can dream, and work as hard as you can work in order to achieve your maximum potential.

The Truth Behind Christmas

The Date

• The date of December 25th probably originated with the ancient "birthday" of the son-god, Mithra, a pagan deity whose religious influence became widespread in the Roman Empire during the first few centuries A.D. Mithra was related to the Semitic sun-god, Shamash, and his worship spread throughout Asia to Europe where he was called Deus Sol Invictus Mithras. Rome was well-known for absorbing the pagan religions and rituals of its widespread empire. As such, Rome converted this pagan legacy to a celebration of the god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the sun god during the winter solstice period. The winter holiday became known as Saturnalia and began the week prior to December 25th. The festival was characterized by gift-giving, feasting, singing and downright debauchery, as the priests of Saturn carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession throughout the Roman temples.
• Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25.  During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration.  The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.”  Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week.  At the festival’s conclusion, December 25^th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
• In the 4^th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it.  Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25^th, to be Jesus’ birthday.
• Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia.  As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.”  The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc.
• The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston observed in 1687 that “the early Christians who  first observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones.”[3]  Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.[4]  However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians. 
• Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city.  An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators.  They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.”[5]
• As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, “It is not opportune to make any innovation.”[6]  On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country.  In Warsaw 12 Jews were brutally murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped.  Two million rubles worth of property was destroyed.  

References:

Origin of Christmas | The Real Story of Christmas | How it Began 

The Shocking Pagan Origin of Christmas 

Let it snow

Do you love snow? Do you like to experience snow but like me, lives in a snow-free country? Well, fret no more. Google gives you the chance to experience snow on your computers. Just go to google.com and type "let it snow" and see for yourself.

Freelance Salary Raise

As a freelancer, asking for an increase is a tough thing. But in my part time jobs, I had learned to increase my rates on new clients that I get. Here's a good article for freelancers like me to get that desired raise in a timely manner.

Better or Bitter 3

Better or Bitter 2

I really believe that how a person reacts to his past makes him a better or bitter person. A good proof of this is Jacky Chan's past and his present.

Common Sense vs Education

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.

Very well said.

The Truth Behind Christmas - Carlie Brown

Of course, that's why we don't celebrate this event, unlike the many religions out there. And yes, we are Christians.

Half Empty or Half Full

Have you heard of the question "Is a cup half empty or half full?". It's a trivial question which says if a person is a pessimist or an optimist. Well, since it has been an ongoing debate, here's the final answer to end the debate.


Dear: Optimist, Pessimist, and Realist..... While you guys were arguing about the glass of water....... I drank it. - Sincerely, The Opportunist.

The Real Angry Birds

Ever wondered what the famous Angry Birds would look like if they are real birds? Then wonder no more!

Asking the right questions

For QA's and developers, it is essential to know how to reproduce a bug so it can be effectively fixed. In order to do this, you need to ask the right questions.

From this article, here's the guide to asking the right questions:

• What version of software is being used?
• What operating system is being used?
• What patches are employed on the operating system?
• What is the hardware configuration?
• What is the actual error message?
• What happened just prior to the problem occurring?
• Any other proprietary information that might be relevant?
• Is the problem reproducible? If so, what steps were taken to reproduce the problem?

Stop eating....

Shared by a friend from her 6 year-old son.

"Mommy, my butt is eating my underpants!"