Serena On Her Tenth

Russian's Dinafa Safina was once again too powerless over US-hot favorite, Serena Williams. The second seed, now the new number one in the WTA world, crushed the Roland Garros 2008 finalist in just fifty-eight minutes (6-0, 6-3) and she successfully produced 4 aces, no double faults and nearly a flawless percentage on net approaches. This is Serena's third win in Australian Open, the last two were in 2007 and 2005 and all in all, she won ten grand slams. Also in her belt this AO 2009, she and her elder sister, Venus, also came in fantastic victory defeating Ai Sugiyama of Japan and Daniela Hanchutova of Slovakia in women's doubles (6-3, 6-3).

To see the complete winning record of Serena Williams, go to Australian Open

Congrats Serena!

Only Federer Suvives!

Four of my bets to win the Australian Open 2009 were knocked off. First in the list was Venus Williams. I really thought Venus was really hungry to win another grand slam title, considering she won the Doha Sony Ericsson WTA Championship last year. Her final match against Vera Zvonareva was purely a shining gem. She rocked the stage with above-average groundstrokes and excellent footwork. Her shocking second round ext, however, in Aussie Open proved me wrong. Unexpectedly, she was defeated by Russian's Carla Suarez Navarro.

Next in line is Ana Ivanovic. Several people speculated that this 21-year-old Serb won't last long and as expected, these people were right. Ivanovic was ousted by another Russian and the 29th seed, Alisa Kleybanova. This Roland Garros Women Champ could play tennis well but the main problem is her serves. Her forehand was powerful leaving her second round opponent, Albeta Brianti of Italy, in despair. I can't understand what happen to her in third round. She's always sent packing in third round. Last year in Wimbledon, she was upset by China's Jie Zheng. In Brisbane International this year, Amelie Mauresmo nailed her down, 6-3, 6-2 during QF. Geez, what future be in store for this gorgeous tennis icon? It's upsetting seeing her climbing down the WTA rankings.


Another shocking twist in Aussie Open is Andy Murray. Almost everyone expects him to win his first grand slam. His performances in tournaments were all superb, defeating Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in Doha earlier this year. Unluckily, the good timing was not on his side. During the fourth round, people's expectations came into ashes when Murray lost to Spain's pride and Ivanovic rumored BF, Fernando Verdasco. Despite the lost, Murray still gave the world an excellent match. He fired seven aces and his fastest serve speed was 212 KMH.


And the biggest shock of all is Novak Djokovic, the world third-seed and the defending AO champion. He booked a quarterfinal match against US-favorite Andy Roddick but was forced to retire during the fourth set due to extreme exhaustion. His fourth round match against Baghdatis on night seven lasted till two in the morning and he had no enough rest to recuperate for the quarterfinals on day nine. Just as I wanted him to be in the semi, Novak just blew up his chances like a puff.

"My mind wanted me to continue on, I could have stopped even before in the end of the second set, because I felt really bad. I continued on playing thinking that something could help me out, maybe a treatment and things like that. But it just kept coming back." Djokovic explained in an interview.



Four were ousted and what's left in my list is Roger Federer. He met Marat Safin, the 2005 Champion in same Grand Slam, during the third round and some fearless forecast claimed Safin would advance but Fedex proved them wrong. He maimed Safin in three straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6. All in great shape when he oulasted Juan Martin del Potro during the quarterfinal. Now, he is set to face Andy Roddick in the semis in Rod Laver Arena on Thursday night.

Hope Federer wins!


Perhaps, the real dark horse is Fernando Verdasco. Just as I am wrapping up this post, he won his quarterfinals encounter with Frenchman, Jo-Wilfied Tsonga (7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2). Tsonga was a finalist last year.

Photos courtesy of australianopen.com

Ivanovic at 13!

Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 Roland Garros Women's Singles Champion, is at number 13 in January issue of PopCrunch's Hottest Women in 2009. No need to doubt about it, of all the beautiful and gorgeous women in the world today, may it be in showbiz, sports, music or TV, this 21-year-old Serb got the spunk to outlast those competitors. She just needs to improve her tennis serves and win more tennis grand slams to be in the WTA Top 3 again, hehe.

I'll post the screenshot below for proof, here it is:



And... before I forget, Ana Ivanovic also ranks number two in 50 Hottest Women in Tennis, also in PopCrunch. Gettin' hot right there eh?

For the complete list of 100 Hottest Women in 2009, visit this Digg Link

Understanding What Women Want

Sigmund Freud once raised a mind babbling question, "Of my 30 years of research into the feminine soul.... What does a woman want?" This is not an easy question and perhaps, even those superwomen themselves didn't know the real answer. But I have read a powerful article, written by Danial Bergner, in NY Times that explains the inner mysteries behind female sexuality. Whether you agree or disagree with the sexologists' empirical and speculative findings, the study still produces a powerful standpoint to separate cultural biases from objective biological truth.

Reading this article is a big and insightful revelation. Never expect something that is so predictable till you reach its end. Don't want to believe me? Allow me to extract some of the most powerful statements from the study,

"...why women are aroused physiologically by such a wider range of stimuli than men."

"...men are better able than women to perceive increases in heart rate at moments of heightened stress and that men may rely more on such physiological signals to define their emotional states, while women depend more on situational cues."

"women’s desire is not relational, it’s narcissistic"

"women might set a high value on the closeness and longevity of relationships"

"What women want is a real dilemma... Women want to be thrown up against a wall but not truly endangered."

Sounds interesting, right? To read the full version, visit NY TIMES

Photo courtesy of www.alyson.com

Novak Survives!

In a heart-pacing match that lasted 183 minutes, Novak Djokovic came victorious over the American Amer Delic, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6. The Serb was evidently struggling to survive the powerful aces of Delic. Delic produced sixteen aces in four matches compared to Djokovic's eleven. Djokovic was also in total heat during the fourth set, rounding only a fifty percent of his first serves and laid out seven unforced errors. But the defending AO champ managed to gather his high hopes and get even with Delic and win the nerve-cracking tiebreaker.

What more to say? Amer Delic was a great and aggressive player but Novak was in better form and got lucky to successfully advance to the fourth round.

Excellent Match, Novak!

Good Luck

Photo source: www.australianopen.com

Ivanovic Cruises To Third Round

Breaking the second-round exit curse in US Open 2008, Ana Ivanovic cruised her way to the third round of Australian Open 2009 by defeating Italian Alberta Brianti, 6-3, 6-3. Ivanovic took 92 minutes to end this match and has still managed to produced fives aces, two in first set and three in the second, even her serves are not consistently excellent. During the first set, her first serve was only 44% compared to Brianti's 64%. Yet, the World No. 5 Serbian took an improved plight in the second set, producing 79% in her serve.

It's too early to tell if Ivanovic will smoothly sail through the AO finals. She still needs to play two matches before reaching the quarterfinals. In the third round, she may face Alisa Kleybanova, the 29th seed and if she wins, she may again face Caroline Wozniacki, currently the eleventh seed and for the record, this Denmark's pride was only inches away of maiming US Serena Williams during the Sydney Medibank QF. That's cool but my vote still goes for Ana!

One last say before ending this post,

GOOD LUCK ANA and be extra careful with your serve...

Photo courtesy of australianopen.com

Survivor Insights of the Day: I LOVE YOU

Today is the 17th death anniversary of my dear mom. She died of stomach cancer and until now, I still couldn't forget the last few minutes of conversation I have with her. Her whole body was in excruciating pain that time but tried to swallow all the tears to remind me to be a good boy and just do great in my studies.

I had no clue she's dying that night and I was only six. I was completely innocent and not even aware how a human body dies.

But past will remain past. That's only a memory- a part of my history.

For now, just want to scream:

I LOVE YOU, MOMMY! Hope you're happy wherever you are. No one knows when will we see each other again.

Survivor Insights of the Day!

"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's Business" -Warren Edward Buffet

Buffet is now tagged as the most richest man in the world, according to FORBES

Here's the ABC of his success: (taken from Beverly Hills Haven)

A. Money doesn't create man; it is the man who created money.

B. Live your life as simple as you are.

C. Don't do what others say, just listen to them, but do what you feel good.

D. Don't go for brand name; just wear those things in which u feel comfortable.

E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend on those who really are in need.

F. After all it' s your life; so why give chance to others to rule your life.

And here's what I'm gonna say:

From this day on, Buffet is my big icon. Nailing down the Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, from top position is no joke at all. But the question is, who is Warren Edward Buffet?

Go to woopido

Photo source: www.south-africa-restaurants-menu.com

Who's Your Bet?

Australian Open 2009 is around the corner (Jan 19-Feb 1) and many seeded-players, including my beloved Ana Ivanovic, are on the ground and practice like hell.



With Maria Sharapova, the defending champ in women's division, out in the Open due to shoulder injury... who do you think will win the title? Can Sharapova's runner-up, Ivanovic, still make it or somebody else grabs the crown?

Here's a full-length video of Sharapova-Ivanovich final match in Australian Open 2008


No need to doubt, this 2009---my big vote goes for Ana...

But Ivanovic is easily pressured in some unexplained sorts and Venus Williams can take advantage of this weakness and just zoom in the big picture. Venus seems hungry and she wants more

In mens, many say that Andy Murray will bag the big prize. I read a prediction in Omiyageh.com and found out that the author also agrees with the speculations.

"If I'm a betting man, I would put my money on Andy Murray on this one. Just Basing from his performance on this year's Qatar Open where he dominated both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on the same week, this guy is definitely on a roll," he wrote.

Still, my big bet goes to Novak Djokovic. He's the defending champ and like Fed-ex, Nole might still have a dream of winning the bacon in two consecutive years.

Seeing his awesome performance in 2009 Brisbane Internal, Fernando Verdasco might once again play his magic cards to win his first grand slam.

The Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, seems hungry but yeah, Andy Murray can beat him for sure!

Survivor Insights of the Day!

"Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement." - Alfred Adler

The First Pinoy Sole Survivor and his Diet Plan

After winning Survivor Philippines, JC Tiuseco was interviewed by Yahoo News! Philippines and the coolest part of the interview was his diet routine to gain weight.

JC follows the basic routine of three square meals a day with snacks in between but without rice.

Breakfast

bread, hotdog, egg and for drinks, plain water

Lunch

beef

Supper

more beef...

Snacks

pizza

Fruit

banana

Seems an OK diet plan that I can follow. But pizza is so expensive for snacks, can I just go for Banana-Q?

Hehehe

"Awareness Without Action is Worthless"

This is probably the most insightful quote I read from Dr. Phil McGraw's MySpace Blog. First time I read it, I knew it was me!

Ask me if I'm feeling guilty about this quote and I will answer YES. There are loads of situation in my life when I feel I was a complete loser. Things like I'm aware of something but I don't do something about it.

For instance, I am an ectomorph. That's my problem. I'm aware I'm skinny but until now, I don't establish a balanced diet to gain weight. As an ectomorph, I need to eat food that are rich in protein.

Another thing is sleep. Back in college, I always burn my midnight candle just to get A marks in class. Studies, theories, quizzes and assignments were all in my mind but I didn't take a while and pat my back, "Hey Dean, you need some sleep."

The results:

Here I am, still surviving but living with a weak immune system.

Wow, how awesome I am! :(

Doing something is one of my weaknesses probably because I am not naturally born to be a choleric. Let me explain the definition of choleric.

Choleric is one of those four fluids of our personality and its main description is "The Doer."

But I don't blame myself for being not a doer. The secret of a happy life is to love yourself no matter how screwed you are. The truth is, in every mistake you voluntarily create, an insightful realization is made.

I have my reasons why I don't do what I want to do. Doing something produces expectations and when my level of expectation seems high, I get frustrated.

This is the reason why I'm always reminding myself to enjoy the spontaneity of everything. Failure or success, I am still the engineer of my destiny.

If something is not accomplished, I learn to wait for the right timing. Sometimes, having a Type A personality nails me down. Realizing not all what I desire is always what I get seems a good thing, right?

And Yes,

Awareness without actions is worthless but to me,

Awareness without understanding what, why, when and how to properly do something seems worthless.

Photo courtesy of: www.baldiness.com

Letting Go

Letting go is hard. The stage of your life when you feel heavy and vulnerable.

Letting go is not easy, for sure. Some people may advise you to let go but they themselves can exactly understand why you need to let go.

They say letting go is a matter of timing. They have a point. Time heals everything, right?

But letting go is not necessarily about timing. It also involves courage. If you have no courage to face the things you can let go, how will you understand why you're letting go?

I don't know what's the big picture of letting go.

All I know is, the past is connected with your present and your present molds your future so why let go?

If you did something wrong in the past, that's simply a part of your history. No matter how you try to ignore, delete or forget the event, it remains as a memory.

So why let go?

Perhaps, the right question is: Is letting go a choice?

In some ways, yes.

Letting go might be defined as a voluntary act to fix something. If you are brokenhearted then someone tells you to let go.

But admit it folks! Sometimes, letting go hurts even more!

Maybe, Dr. Phil Mc Graw was right. Letting go means standing up on your own feet and walk out of your history.

Your history is your past and whether you want it or not, that's your life. If letting go hurts even more, there's a tendency you're not standing tall.

But in the end, having the ability to step out from that history remains your choice. Your choice while waiting for the time to let go.

ATP 2009 Championship in London

The stage is now set for the ATP 8 Champions in London. Wish I'll be there.... I'm sure Andy Murray will be the crowd favorite.

Can't wait to witness this big event in Tennis.

London 2009 - Countdown Officially Underway

Run Your Own Viral Marketing Campaign Like A Pro!

Why YouTube is famous these days, even Ana Ivanovic, the professional WTA icon, wants it?

One answer- The creators of YouTube tickled the masses with viral videos. With that, the formula behind YouTube's flying colors might be the awesome viral marketing campaign in the world.

Aside from watching videos for free, YouTube permits you to input keywords, create titles, embed tags, and descriptions on the sidebar. Below the widescreen, you can also write comments when you sign up as a member.

Online marketing is like YouTube. First, your niche should attract people worldwide. Once hammered your niche into the public eye and they want it, you earn money like a pro.

For you to know, various low-cost seeding techniques are widely-practiced to allure readers, customers and prospects. Let's begin with...

Article Writing

Updating your blog with juicy articles makes you famous. By and large, if you're not good in writing, outsource someone to do the writing for you.

To make things quicker, a story-telling article entertains readers. Just be sure to include those relevant keywords you gathered from Google Adwords. For example, if your niche is about dogs. The extra keywords might be dog health, dog food, dog training techniques etc,- try to include these keywords in your story.

After writing, never neglect to post images. Images charge up your story, agree?

Branding

Brand marketing is basically referring to sharpening your identity. The stage of searching yourself in the crowd of entrepreneurs and for the people to recall you, you dig their their wants and needs.

A while ago, I read this enchanting article titled "5 Tips to Brand Your Business Through Word of Mouth Marketing" written by Andrew Carlson. The following are his branding techniques.

Positive Influence

An businessman knows that his words are worth volumes. If his words are of not good to people, how can he reveal to them the essence of trustworthiness.

Comprehend your target group

Every businessman has a gift of tongue. For this, make use of this strength to only appropriate type of audience.For example, if you sell weight loss products to obese people, they will most likely tell their friends about it and their friends will cruise the news to another set of people.

Avoid being too kind

There is a line that separates sales and constructing friendships. An entrepreneur is an endorser. You are only reaching out to people the bestest way you can and not necessarily making friends with them just to obtain money.

The WOMM Formula

WOMM stands for Word-of-Mouth-Marketing. Happy marketers never give up in spreading the good news. There are seeding techniques to shout the words and these marketers use these methods to make sales.

Stay Positive

When everything goes fluffed, stay calm. Assurance still influences others. If entrepreneurs continue to bring the good news to others, the percentage of sales can arise into multiples. Positive attitude motivates the people to delve into new horizons and new hopes.

Direct Mail Advertising

People get annoyed with sales-pitch letters on a routine basis. Sales letter is a form of coercion, especially when the reader is not interested in buying your product. For this, never regularly send sales letter to your subscribers.

Nicer if you hand out reviews!

Product reviews are informational articles that interact with the readers on how your product is of beneficial to them.

Every product has its own strengths and weaknesses and your readers want to read these two sides in your review. If you hate writing, you can shoot a video, upload it in YouTube and in your email message, insert a link to which your readers can watch the video-review.

Another form of mail advertising is newsletters.

A newsletter includes your opinions, facts, statistics and ideas on variety of matters. For quick glance, the mail should be clear, snappy (about two to four pages only) and the writing style is conversational. Newsletters may be written in a manner of story-telling or in bullets form.

Perhaps, the most critical part of a newsletter is the Subject Line.

The subject line needs to be move them. For instance, if your message introduces someone who is your marketing consultant and his name is Rafael Thomas. You can write "You Must Help Rafael!" as your subject line and once people read your message, they might think of Rafael Nadal, the great tennis player from Spain.

Next, immediately strike your readers with a mind-blowing headline. The headline may be written in a form of a statement, a question, or a famous quote.

After the headline is the content. The content further explains your headline. It elaborates the inquiry why. Why should the people buy the product?

Viral Softwares

As an online marketer, you should grasp what kind of softwares you need to use. Try inputting "list of viral softwares" in Google, you can scan lots of offerings.

Making a choice of the softwares for your viral marketing campaign depends on your goals and needs. For example, if your business is about article writing, you need to come upon an article spinner software that allows you to spin article in multitudinous.

Pay-Per-Click Campaign Management

You might have heard the term PPC but you don't exactly what it means. Pay-Per-Click or PPC for short is an affiliate program and once, people will hit it on this viral ad or text link, you will earn money. For instance, if you join a PPC program that offers you twenty cents per click, you can earn two thousand dollars per ten thousand clicks.

Learning the unrevealed codes behind PPC can be advantageous on your part. If you don't want to read articles about PPC, you purchase a tutorial product online. These products will give lessons about the real-life strategies to be successful in your campaign.

According to Wikipedia, Google AdWords is probably the most blooming PPC affiliate program, followed by Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter.

Stages of Selling

Due to the fact the amount of sales depend on the number of people who buy your product, this is the surpassing reason why you are campaigning.

According to Laurence Ainsworth, there are five stages in sales. Stage one is the Icebreaker (the building unity stage) then it sails through the next stage, the Opening (outlining the issues). Stage three focuses on questioning.

Questions revolve around 5W's and a H. Instead of asking, "did you buy this machine?," convert this into, "Why did you buy this machine?" The strategy is, start a question and dig into the uncovered issues.

The fourth stage is the Close. After covering the issues, classify the earnest points and give possible solutions to each. This is the stage where the clients thinks and will have the final answer later on.

The final stage is the Consolidation. This is the stage wherein you'll make sure your customers will put a close on the deal. To avoid cancellation, it's mainly up to you how you invite your customers to a celebratory-cup-of-tea.

Ambient and Mobile Marketing

The idea on the side of ambient marketing is to create a loud mind-buzz using an remarkable marketing technique. For example, promoting Global Warming using an photograph of a man swimming in an ocean where there are elevated buildings surrounding him. This image shocks a huge amount of people, right?

And if you own a high-end mobile phone, send your customers shocking images related to your niche. When these customers got curious, they can go over the link pointing to your website or site.

Music and Event Marketing

Now, if you have taste in music, why not create a song about your niche and upload it in YouTube?

You can use this song for special events such as symposiums or general assemblies. I'm sure many people will get the knack of your niche if you give them something to listen over and over again. This may be the consideration why Obama won the US presidential election. He convinced his African-American residents to sing for him.

Photo courtesy of: www.outsourcestrategies.com
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This information is taken from the blog of Tim Brocklehurst, the world-renownded viral marketing expert: http://www.timbrocklehurst.com and for more viral marketing training and development, visit FREEDOM CLASS

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in Fun Unscripted

Harry Potter is now an icon. I already read the seven books and yeah, the books are amazing. For you to know, I also have this routine to marathon the five HP movies every year. Crazy, isn't it?

Can't wait for the sixth installment in the moviescreen. They say it's coming on July this 2009. For the moment, let's watch this unscripted interview from the Magical Trio talking their own amusing experiences in HP and the Order of the Phoenix.

The Eight Lies of a Mother

2009 is here and what a great thing to open this year with a blog post about our mothers. Before posting the entry, let me thank my dear friend, Dianne, for emailing me this piece of story. I miss my mom while reading it :(

Here you go....

The Eighth Lies of a Mother

1. The story began when I was a child; I was born as a son of a poor family. Even for eating, we often got lack of food. Whenever the time for eating, mother often gave me her portion of rice. While she was removing her rice into my bowl, she would say "Eat this rice, son. I'm not hungry".

That was Mother's First Lie



2. When I was getting to grow up, the persevering mother gave her spare time for fishing in a river near our house, she hoped that from the fishes she got, she could gave me a little bit nutritious food for my growth. After fishing, she would cook the fishes to be a fresh fish soup, which raised my appetite. While I was eating the soup, mother would sit beside me and eat the rest meat of fish, which was still on the bone of the fish I ate. My heart was touched when I saw it. I then used my chopstick and gave the other fish to her. But she immediately refused it and said "Eat this fish, son. I don't really like fish."

That was Mother's Second Lie.



3. Then, when I was in Junior High School, to fund my study, mother went to an economic enterprise to bring some used-matches boxes that would be stuck in. It gave her some money for covering our needs. As the winter came, I woke up from my sleep and looked at my mother who was still awoke, supported by a little candlelight and within her perseverance she continued the work of sticking some used-matches box. I said, "Mother, go to sleep, it's late, tomorrow morning you still have to go for work. " Mother smiled and said "Go to sleep, dear. I'm not tired."

That was Mother's Third Lie.



4. At the time of final term, mother asked for a leave from her work in order to accompany me. While the daytime was coming and the heat of the sun was starting to shine, the strong and persevering mother waited for me under the heat of the sun's shine for several hours. As the bell rang, which indicated that the final exam had finished, mother immediately welcomed me and poured me a glass of tea that she had prepared before in a cold bottle. The very thick tea was not as thick as my mother's love, which was much thicker. Seeing my mother covering with perspiration, I at once gave her my glass and asked her to drink too. Mother said "Drink, son. I'm not thirsty!".

That was Mother's Fourth Lie.



5. After the death of my father because of illness, my poor mother had to play her role as a single parent. By held on her former job, she had to fund our needs alone. Our family's life was more complicated. No days without sufferance. Seeing our family's condition that was getting worse, there was a nice uncle who lived near my house came to help us, either in a big problem and a small problem. Our other neighbors who lived next to us saw that our family's life was so unfortunate, they often advised my mother to marry again. But mother, who was stubborn, didn't care to their advice, she said "I don't need love."

That was Mother's Fifth Lie.



6. After I had finished my study and then got a job, it was the time for my old mother to retire. But she didn't want to; she was sincere to go to the marketplace every morning, just to sell some vegetable for fulfilling her needs. I, who worked in the other city, often sent her some money to help her in fulfilling her needs, but she was stubborn for not accepting the money. She even sent the money back to me. She said "I have enough money."

That was Mother's Sixth Lie.



7. After graduated from Bachelor Degree, I then continued my study to Master Degree. I took the degree, which was funded by a company through a scholarship program, from a famous University in America I finally worked in the company. Within a quite high salary, I intended to take my mother to enjoy her life in America . But my lovely mother didn't want to bother her son, she said to me "I'm not used to."

That was Mother's Seventh Lie.



8. After entering her old age, mother got a flank cancer and had to be hospitalized. I, who lived in miles away and across the ocean, directly went home to visit my dearest mother. She lied down in weakness on her bed after having an operation. Mother, who looked so old, was staring at me in deep yearn. She tried to spread her smile on her face; even it looked so stiff because of the disease she held out. It was clear enough to see how the disease broke my mother's body, thus she looked so weak and thin. I stared at my mother within tears flowing on my face. My heart was hurt, so hurt, seeing my mother on that condition. But mother, with her strength, said "Don't cry, my dear. I'm not in pain."

That was Mother's Eight Lie.

After saying her eighth lie, She closed her eyes forever!

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Hoping this new year, you love your mom even more. Love her as if you'll never see her again. Her love is unconditional.