Hillcrest Mennonite Church

Your Business Budget

adonn — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:58:37 +0000

It’s often said that the true cost of a business location is the cost of rent plus the cost of advertising to get your customers to come to that location. Whether you sell your products and services from a physical shop in your home or a virtual site on the Internet, it can cost you both time and money to let potential customers know where you are. In many cases, you’ll be able to keep the expense down by being creative — if you don’t have much cash, you can work at gaining free publicity or at generating word of mouth advertising, for example.
You can also track the competition. Note where your competitors are advertising and how frequently, jotting down ad size, positioning, timing, and color use. Check the phone directories and other media — even bus advertising. You can ballpark costs by asking the advertising reps from each of the media outlets about their rates. Multiply the rates by the ad frequency, and you’ll have a reasonable idea how much your competitors are spending.
Although it’s fine to try new media and new publications in search of additional customers, beware of buying an ad just because it’s cheap. Even an inexpensive ad is wasted money if it doesn’t reach your target customers.

The Mano Po Series

adonn — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:44:02 +0000

The Mano Po anthology, produced by Regal Entertainment, is one of the most successful film series produced in the history of Philippine cinema, second only Shake, Rattle & Roll (Filipino film series) (which has a total of 12 film adaptations with three episodes). The series has now six productions and also includes Ako Legal Wife and Bahay Kubo (A Pinoy Mano Po). All episodes are directed by Joel Lamangan, with the exception of Mano Po 2 (2003) which was helmed by Erik Matti. The six series focuses on the ways and traditions of the Chinese-Filipino community.
The first Mano Po film was starred by Maricel Soriano, Kris Aquino, Richard Gomez, Ara Mina, Eddie Garcia. Regal Entertainment produced the first Mano Po episode, known also as Mano Po 1: My Family. The film won 12 MMFF awards including Best Picture. The second episode focuses on concubinage, despite of the first marriage (played by Aquino and De Leon). Susan Roces and Kris Aquino shares the portrayal of Sol (respectively in adult and younger roles). Christopher de Leon, in his debut role in the series, plays Antonio, a patriarch. Zsa Zsa Padilla and Lorna Tolentino are Antonio’s other mistresses in the movie. Erik Matti directs this film.This film is known for Zsa Zsa Padilla’s line “Ako legal wife! (I am his legal wife)”, which was being inspired for the comedy Ako Legal Wife two years later.
The third episode marks the appearance of Vilma Santos as Lilian Chiong, an anti-crime crusader who was romantically torn between Michael (Christopher de Leon, in their latest team-up after Dekada 70) and Paul(Jay Manalo). This film bagged the 2004 Metro Manila Film Festival Best Picture Award. Santos won the best actress award in the said filmfest.Produced by Regal’s sister production MAQ productions, Mano Po III marks the return of Joel Lamangan as the series’ director. Lamangan, however, lost to Cesar Montano (for Panaghoy sa Suba) for bagging the Best Director Award in the 2004 Metro Manila Film Festival. This comedy, popularly claimed as Mano Po 4(?), focuses on concubinage. Zsa Zsa Padilla won the best actress award in the 2005 Metro Manila Film Festival.
Next is the Mano Po 5. This series is more of a romantic comedy-drama rather than the earlier ones which center around serious drama. However, Angel Locsin’s appearance as the leading role for this film is her last project with Regal Entertainment (not counting The Promise) followed by her transfer to ABS-CBN a year later. The new tale marks the first project of Sharon Cuneta under Regal Films. This is also a reunion movie for Cuneta with Joel Lamangan (last worked in Walang Kapalit in 2003) and Christopher de Leon(last worked in Magkapatid in 2002). The dramatic story focuses on billionaire Melinda Uy, who had a rags-to-riches story of hardships and triumphs as a Chinese-Filipino blooded woman.

Watch “The Return” Movie

adonn — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:50:20 +0000

A self-assured Midwestern girl finds her confidence gradually crumbling as a barrage of terrifying visions prompt her to investigate a brutal murder in a supernatural thriller directed by Asif Kapadia and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Joanna Mills (Gellar) is a successful sales representative for a local trucking company, and though her professional life is at an all-time high, her personal life couldn’t be any more troubling at the moment. Estranged from her father (Sam Shepard) and menacingly stalked by an obsessive ex-boyfriend (Adam Scott), Joanna feels all alone in the world as her downward spiral rapidly begins to accelerate.
When Joanna has a psychic experience in which she literally sees and feels the brutal murder of a female stranger, she soon begins to suspect that she has been targeted as the killer’s next victim. Joanna isn’t the type to go down without a fight, however, and as her increasingly vivid visions guide her ever closer to the victim’s hometown, the secrets that will be revealed leave her wondering if the murder she is investigating may be her own.
It doesn’t feel like your standard teen shocker. It’s also not a remake, but it feels more Asian than most Hollywood horror do-overs: Mellow — nay, snoozy — atmospherics trump actual scares, and it makes almost zero sense. Gellar is a screwy-headed cutter called to a small Texas town, where she is haunted by visions of a dead woman, voices that call her “Sunshine,” and — in what passes for the major goose-pimple tactic — repeated plays of Patsy Cline’s ”Sweet Dreams.”

Choosing the Right HDTV to buy

adonn — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:51:26 +0000

Analog TV’s are now coming to an end. What is “in” today are the HDTV. HDTV is a plaything for the rich and self-indulgent, some cryptic form of digital television designed for Freemasons, just one more ridiculously overhyped and overpriced technology aimed at parting care-worn folk from their hard-earned cash. Right?

Wrong. The analog television standard we’ve been using since just after World War II is ludicrously obsolete. It was designed for round-cornered five-inch pictures that were mere portholes compared to the big screens that today’s home theater buffs demand. Trying to build a home theater system around 1948-vintage technology is like riding a horse in the slow lane.
As a very loose rule of thumb, minimum viewing distance should be three times the height of a widescreen set (HDTV is a widescreen medium) or roughly 1.5 times the diagonal measurements that manufacturers and retailers use.

GoldVish’s Equilibrium

adonn — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:52:11 +0000

Last month GoldVish has added a new masterpiece in its portfolio – the new phone Equilibrium is the latest luxurious creation of the Swiss company.
The company addresses Equilibrium to successful business men / women and gives them the possibility to combine harmonious work and home – this being the main focus of this phone. Thereby it comes with two SIM slots, and it also has the possibility to maintain one of the SIM allocated to the home-area, while traveling in other countries.
Regarding technical data, let’s mention:
- 8GB memory
- 2.4” display, 240×320 pixels
- Camera, Bluetooth, Stereo FM
- 20 days stand-by time
- 7 hours talk time
Regarding extravagance, GoldVish suprises us again with:
- Used material: Titanium, Stainless Steel, space grade Aluminum or Leather
- Scratch resistance: fulfilled by natural Sapphire
- 18K Platinum or Gold accents
- Charming phone colors: pink, grey, brown, black or blue

The Beautiful Sa Pa Terraces

adonn — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:01:32 +0000

It is a frontier town and capital of Sa Pa District in the Lao Cai province in northwest Vietnam. It is one of the main market towns in the area, where several ethnic minority groups such as Hmong, Dao (Yao), Giay, Pho Lu, and Tay live.

It was only when the French debarked in highland Tonkin in the late 1880s that Sa Pa, or Chapa (from Chinese Xa Pa, the “sandy place”)as the French called it, began to appear on the national map. In the following decade, the future site of Sa Pa town started to see military parties as well as missionaries from the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP) visit. The French military marched from the Red River Delta into the northern mountainous regions as part of Tonkin’s ‘pacification’. In 1894-96 the border between China and Tonkin was formally agreed upon and the Sa Pa area, just to the south of this frontier, was placed under French authority. From 1891 the entire Lào Cai region, including Sa Pa, came under direct colonial military administration so as to curtail banditry and political resistance on the sensitive northern frontier.
The first permanent French civilian resident arrived in Sa Pa in 1909. With its attractive continental climate, health authorities believed the site had potential. By 1912 a military sanatorium for ailing officers had been erected along with a fully fledged military garrison. Then, from the 1920s onwards, several wealthy
professionals with enough financial capital also had a number of private villas built in the vicinity.

adonn — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 10:59:43 +0000

Passports are our entry pass before we can enter in a new country. This is a personal booklet containing some personal information such as name, date and place of birth, nationality and/or citizenship, date of issued of the passport, date of expiration and others.
We need to protect our passport for so many reasons. How? Here are some ways. Number one is you should cover it. Not only does a cover keep your passport in good shape, but a passport cover from another country can be used to keep things low key and to keep people guessing.
If you’re at home, keep your passport in a secure, dry place. (And no, running your passport through the laundry does not qualify as “minding it.”)
On the road, keep it in your money belt or some other place that is zipped up, out of sight and hard to get to. The worst place to keep your passport? Stuffed in the back pocket of your jeans or an exposed pocket of your backpack. It screams, “Please lose me!” or “Please steal me!” We’re astounded by how often we see this on the road.

Using Mobile Telephone in Singapore

adonn — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:57:53 +0000

When using your mobile telephone abroad you really have two choices – one is to use your existing SIM card, if your service provider has a roaming service and you have roaming enabled. The other option is to purchase a local pay as you go SIM card which will give you a local number and you will pay local rates.
The major disadvantage to roaming is the high costs of calling people and of course for people to call you. Let’s say for example that you are in Singapore on business but your appointment at 11am wants to change the time of the meeting he would have to call your number internationally, so if you are from the UK, he would have to call the UK and pay for that call and you would have to pay for the part of the call from the UK to Singapore. A very expensive mess!
This is why the easiest and cheapest option is to buy a local pay as you go SIM card. In doing so if the above mentioned appointment wants to change the time of the meeting all he has to do is call a local Singapore number and you pay nothing. Plus any outgoing calls you make are at good local prices so you are not being ripped off from that angle either.

New Records for Boeing 787

adonn — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 09:55:17 +0000

Boeing has established two world records with the 787 Dreamliner, setting new marks for both speed and distance for the airplane’s weight class.
“Speed and distance capabilities are fundamental to the value the 787 brings to the market,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program. “These records are a great way to demonstrate that this airplane is the game-changer we have promised.”
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner provides both long distance capabilities with mid-size capacity (210-250 passengers in a three-class seating), allowing airlines to open new, non-stop routes preferred by the traveling public.
The sixth 787, ZA006, powered by General Electric GEnx engines, departed from Boeing Field in Seattle at 11:02 a.m. on 6 December 2011 and set the distance record for its class (440,000-550,000 lbs.) with a 10,710 nmi (19,835 km) flight to Dhaka, Bangladesh, with credit for 10,337 nmi (19,144 km). This record had previously been held by the Airbus A330 based on a 9,127 nmi (16,903 km) flight in 2002.

Watch The Mentalist Season 4 Episode 8 – Pink Tops

rylene — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:07:31 +0000

The time has now arrived for you to know the next airing of The Mentalist this month of November! So those who keep waiting, you have now the reason to cheer, yes because on the Thursday night of November 17, 2011 at 10:00pm you will be watching the eighth Episode of The Mentalist Season four with the title “Pink Tops” and this will be view on CBS channel! Do always watch this show? If you don’t want to miss this exciting episode of this season, make sure that you will not forget to make reminders about the date and time of the show mentioned in the beginning of the paragraph! But if you’re now excited to find out what will be view in this episode, here’s the following synopsis: Jane and the CBI team must go back over every step of her investigation so that they can determine who killed an undercover narc. To know the full details and information about this scene, never forget to watch on that day and time of the show mentioned in the onset! So are you ready now to find out more interesting parts in this episode? Don’t miss this chance so that you will not regret later on!