Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, hello! I am here to give you all a huge Valentine hug! I have been busy but I will be back!

I am sorry I have not been leaving comments on your blog…but I will be catching up with you very soon.

Signing off for now.

My Choice for January: Beyond Looking Good by Dina H. Loomis

Beyond Looking Good by Dina H. Loomis

For this year's first, I picked Beyond Looking Good by Dina H. Loomis. Ms D., as she is fondly called by people who know her, is a good friend. I met her many years ago when I was aspiring to become a radio broadcaster and chanced upon Toastmasters Club (Tambuli). She became a mentor who helped me with my speeches and I later became an events presenter (which I did for sometime).

Ms Dina H. Loomis is fondly called Ms D by people who know her

Beyond Looking Good is Dina's first. This book is a compilation of her monthly articles published by the People Manager magazine of the People Management Association of the Philippines. It is divided into three parts, i.e. Appearance, Behavior and Communication. It contains tips, guidelines, stories and examples on a variety of topics including attitude, civility, colors, styles, communication, public speaking, leadership, spiritual and physical wellness and the power of persona profiling.

Beyond Looking Good, the title of this book, is also the name of Dina's blog. It captures her rebirth, so to speak. Facial beauty, flashy clothes, sparkling accessories can only enhance our persona. It is our core values, our attitudes, and our behaviour that determine who we really are.

This book is for the reader who wants to explore the myriad of possibilities that life has to offer, and offer to life the myriad of possibilities from one’s being.

In Dina's own words: "It is my desire that you will enjoy reading it, learn something from it, and take positive action to enrich your life."

If you like books by Dale Carnegie, Richard Templar, Andrew Matthews - just to name a few, you will love Dina Loomis' Beyond Looking Good.

If you'd like to know more, go and visit Dina's blog: Beyond Looking Good

If you'd like to stay connected, go and find her on Facebook: Facebook - Beyond Looking Good

If you'd like to get a copy of her book, here's the link to Amazon:

Amazon.com - Beyond Looking Good

Good grammar skills will help your career

I follow Grammarly, an online grammar checker, on Facebook. I have also heard fellow writers give their praises on their services.  I am also a Grammarly subscriber/user and have used it once or twice on line and it is free. If you'd like to upgrade to premium, you can find out more on the link above.

Grammarly has recently polled nearly 500 freelance professionals in eight different job categories on Elance, an online staffing platform. Grammarly reviewed the profiles of freelancers who had received four or five star ratings from employers with the goal of determining whether the accuracy of a freelancer’s profile is related to their credibility, hireability, and pay.

Checking for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors, Grammarly found that freelancers with the highest ratings had fewer mistakes in all eight categories (Writing & Translation, Admin. support, Legal, Design & Multimedia, Engineering & Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing, Finance & Management and IT & Programming). 

Also, Grammarly found that the better writers tended to earn more money. 

Freelancers in Engineering & Manufacturing with 10 or fewer errors in their profiles on average made $520.64 per job; while those with 30 or more errors made on average $237.42.

Freelancers in Sales & Marketing with 10 or fewer errors made about $498.26 per job; while those with 30 or more errors made on average $182.07 per job.

Additional findings:

Freelance Writers & Translators made the fewest amount of mistakes, averaging 10.1 errors per every 100 words.

Freelancers in the IT & Programming fields fared the poorest, with 19.3 errors per every 100 words.

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This is not a paid advertisement.  I have not received any payment in any form from this post.  I am a Grammarly subscriber/user. I believe in this campaign and this is the only reason why I have published this post.

I greet the new year with a new name!

Frankly, I have no idea what my blog is going to be called.  Eversince I've moved here from Conversations with Self, it never felt like home. The blog names I came up with so far did not sound right.  I used my name as well which did not sound quite the one I had in mind, especially since I stopped writing for nearly two years.  Even now that I'm determined to get back on my feet and write again (I wrote nearly 2K words last night, yay!), I still wouldn't use my name (yet) as this blog's title.

I came up with a lot of ideas and they were all absolute rubbish (so I'm not going to share any of them with you).  I've been thinking about this feeling of uncertainty and indecisiveness lately...and I'm coming to a conclusion that somehow, maybe, it stems down from "waiting" for something to happen all the time, for something to make it feel right when it feels "not quite there yet" or "not quite right". So, today, I thought, sod that.  I'm going to call this blog whatever I want. Of course, of course, I still thought of it for weeks on end, to be honest.  I had lists, endless lists, of names, some stupid, some okay, most of them not-okay. But at the end of the day, we have to laugh.

I have quite a few things in store for you in the next few months so this name must do for now.  I really cannot afford to lose the word "conversations" but it would be a repetition of my old blog so I thought I'd replace it with "confabulation" instead (Did you just burst out laughing? Ha, me too!).  Phew, what a day! Such hard work just to decide on a blog name when all the world seem to be coming to an end (if I disappoint you or make you feel this way in any way, I apologise).

It is a long explanation for a blog name so I must sign off for now.

Happy New Year!