Brain Wave – Page 16 – Sasha Says…

Preparing for the rainy days.

March 1, 2021 No Comments

Rainy season in this part of the world comes around late June up to early October. There are rain showers even in months which are supposed to be sunny and clear skies. Being prepared for the rainy days is a priority in this part of the world, especially when your house is situated in low-lying areas which are prone to flooding.

The residential area where our house is located is not prone to flooding but every year we prepare a checklist of what we need to do and get repair or maintenance professionals for. Here are the parts of the house that we check annually to make sure it is in good shape and condition.

Roof – Clean off whatever trash that got stuck on the roof as those stuff will cause deterioration fast. Make sure there is nothing that holds water like a dent or a broken shingle. Water that gets stuck on the roof will make it rust and rot.

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Inspect the flashing just to make sure that it is still in good condition, solid, and not deteriorating already. Get the sealant ready should there is be need. Scrub and make sure it is clean. Also, make sure there are no loose shingles. Again, if there is a need, replace. The gutter is another very important part of the roof. Clean, secure any holes, if there is any, and make sure that the water is flowing freely down the pipes.

Windows – Dish soap with warm water is the best cleaning agent for windows. I have read that when I did a research on how best to clean windows. Not when the sunlight is at its peak, and do not use power hose when washing it.

Remember that windows control the temperature inside the house depending on how you use it. If there really is a need to, get windows winnipeg experts to check your windows. They might need to be replaced and you want the experts to install good and long-lasting windows for you.

Pipes and Drain – This is actually being done every quarter in our house. We make sure there are no leaks in the pipes and water flow freely. The drains we make sure are not clogged and there are no trash in it.

We remind each other at home to not throw away any greasy items in the drain. Also, to always pick up balls of hair that gets stuck in bathroom drains. We already use a drain guard but it is still best to pick up strands of hair that get stuck in it.

These are just the basic parts of the house that we check annually to make sure we are ready for the rainy season. We schedule an earlier check so that when the rains start falling earlier than expected, we will not panic whether the roof over our heads will hold or it will start leaking like crazy.

Brain Wave, Computers and gadgets, Internet-Web Devt, Money matters

Vlogging: Can you really earn from it?

February 28, 2021 No Comments

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A couple has been on the hunt for furniture toronto for a few days now. Not for a brand new home or renovation. Not to give as a welcome home gift or for a newly-wed couple starting to build their forever home. The furniture will become the backdrop for their videos. The couple is into video blogging or, simply called, vlogging.

Vlogging has become such a trend nowadays that even ordinary individuals have their own YouTube channels you can subscribe to. Do you know why? The money to be earned in a video viewed by the millions. It is rumored that a YouTube video viewed at least five hundred million times will earn you a whopping one million US dollars!!! Not too sure about the accuracy of that article I read but if it is true, then you cannot really blame the hundreds of ordinary individuals who would do anything just to get their videos to go viral online.

But, can you really earn from vlogging?

Apparently, yes. You need to reach a certain number of viewers in order for your uploaded YouTube vlog to start getting advertisements. Those ads will pay you depending on the popularity of your channel. I believe celebrities command a higher rate for their vlogs especially as their videos generate millions of views in a span of weeks.

Very recently, an unknown man uploaded a vlog of his. He was spaced out in the video, looking somewhere in front of him, eyes wide open and unblinking. The caption of the video was this… wait and see if the man will blink his eyes. It was a two-minute video with nothing but the wide-eyed man spaced out. It went viral! The video was viewed millions of times by netizens who got curious if something would happen in between 1 second and two minutes. Nothing happened. I was also duped by that video but can you imagine the amount of money the vlogger earned just by that simple vlog of his?

In reality, vlogging was coined to connote a new performance art or music released by an artist. It was used in a different manner, with everyone who has a video camera and some confidence to record themselves, would create a video to be uploaded in YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or even their own blog sites. In all honesty, had I know that vlogging will generate a big chunk of income, I would have joined the bandwagon a long time ago.

Still, I wish that some people respect the platform. Not everyone can vlog! And not because you have the equipment, you can now record video after video, then find a way to make it go viral just for you to earn. Vlog if you have something important to say or impart. Vlog if you really think you will entertain someone to lighten their daily load. Vlog if you must but hopefully with the good intention and not only for you to earn from it.

Brain Wave, Careers, Freelancing and Self-Employment, Family and Home living

Graveyard Shift

February 25, 2021 No Comments

It has been a few weeks of searching online for the best custom drapery for my sister’s room. It has been a work from home set-up for her since March of last year. In the beginning, it was not a problem for her to be in the graveyard shift. Her work begins at eight in the evening up to five the next morning. Sometimes, it goes beyond five and I would wake up with her still working at past seven in the morning.

Exhausted from her graveyard shift, she would demand all lights turned off and no noise near her room.

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So, my idea is to find the best blackout curtains for her. 100% of light coming into the room will be blocked by it but I want curtains that will fit her personality and be elegant as well. My sister is the serious kind but when she is in the mood, can crack up everyone around her. I want that to reflect in the draperies I will find for her room.

What is the difference between blackout curtains and room darkening ones, you would ask. Blackout curtains totally shields the room from 100% of light coming in, while room darkening rooms can still let some light, 1% of it, come in. I am totally fine with room darkening curtains because I am not much into dark rooms. At night, yes, but in the morning, I love some sunlight coming in through the windows.

I know there are some people out there who are not into curtains. I remember visiting a friend’s newly renovated condominium unit. I was surprised that her windows looked bare. I asked if she planned to get curtains or blinds for it but she said that she was leaving it like that, bare with the light coming in 100% of the time. I was there in the afternoon and my eyes hurt the whole time we were catching up in her living room.

Drapery is a must in our home. I may like dim rooms but I also like light coming in the house in the morning. Drapery is also for privacy. Our home is a three-storey house and we are located in an area with mix residential-commercial establishments. The structure in front of our home is a car accessories shop so from time to time there are men who would look up at our house. For privacy, we would block out the light and the lingering eyes of strangers. So, you can say that curtains are also a layer of security for our home.

We will be doing another round of general cleaning soon. We will re-arrange stuff inside my sister’s room and we will have the draperies installed. It will be peaceful and quiet mornings for my sister after her graveyard shift five times a week.

Brain Wave, Life in general, Money matters

Budgeting as a side effect of lockdown.

February 24, 2021 No Comments

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When the year 2020 came in, a lot of positive stuff came with it. Everyone was hopeful. People have kept their faith that everything would fall into place that year, with luck being on our side. January 2020 was good, February even better. Then, came March…

A super typhoon wreaked havoc in several parts of the country through flooding. A volcano erupted after it. The eruption left so many families without their livelihoods, destroying crops, tourism, and so much more. Then, this corona virus claiming so many lives and causing massive lockdowns around the world!

One side effect of the lockdown due to the virus is retrenchment. A number of people lost their jobs because companies had to let go of some of their employees in order to stay afloat. Can you imagine losing your steady source of income? It is scary. But I’d like to think that this virus also brought about some positive changes in our lives. One such positive outcome is budgeting. Majority of individuals, especially parents, learned how to budget properly.

money-organizer These days, instead of immediately buying a brand new appliance when the one at home gets broken, an appliance repair brampton specialist gets called instead. Practical, cheaper. Economical.

When a double-income household becomes a single-income household, you learn to tighten the belt, fix this and that, to make ends meet. You learn to budget properly. You learn how to keep track of your family cash flow in order to make sure all the needs are met and some spare can be saved.

If you are having a hard time budgeting, here is a suggestion, an easy way to budget your income. Get a money organizer, label it with the expenses you need to pay off and spend on for the next fifteen days (this is particularly for salaried income earners), and start putting cash in every pocket until you have enough for every item of expense you have there. Mommies have been swearing on the effectiveness of this method of budgeting. One way of being able to properly budget through the money organizer is by sticking to the plan. Writing down what is truly needed for the next fifteen days, sticking to the list, doing meal planning… it is a big part of a successful budget.

Not everything brought on by this virus lockdown had negative effect on our lives. The lockdown taught us hard lessons. Save up for emergencies. Create and stick to a budget. Learn to tighten the belt when the household income drops. Get to know the needs of every member of the family living under one roof in order to avoid clashes. Be sensitive to the needs and quirks of everyone around you. The lockdown is probably a way of the world to teach us to look beyond what is in front of us, to improvise again like we used to, to become better versions of ourselves.

I would like to believe that we will come out of this virus period stronger and better.

Brain Wave, Life in general

The importance of spare keys.

February 23, 2021 No Comments

Home rentals can be tricky at times. After getting the master keys from the owner, what should be the first thing you must do? Call an emergency locksmith and change all the locks! Or at the very least, the lock of the gate and the front door.

front-door You are not sure if the keys you hold are the only keys leading into your home. The owner could be an unscrupulous fellow who can get in and out of your home when you are not around. You do not want that to happen.

There was a news in the past about a landlord who went inside his rentals, went through his renters’ things, then pretended that he didn’t know what happened. Good thing there was a CCTV in one of the rentals so he was caught in the act. From then on, changing locks became a habit.

But here’s one of the tricky parts of changing locks: you need to make sure that you have spare keys for emergencies. Yes, you can call a locksmith when you need one but what if it’s in the middle of the night and you accidentally lock yourself out of your house or room? Here is a suggestion: find a good hiding place. Not under the welcome mat at the front door or even under the plant pot near the stairs. Too obvious! Find somewhere you can hide it properly. It can be an alcove, a dent on the fence, a figurine with a hole in it. Hide your spare key there. You need to have a master key and a set of spare keys inside your house, of course. The spare key hidden outside is for emergencies only.

The same goes for your car. A set of spare keys in a secure place is also very much necessary. It is a must! A co-worker has a spare key for her car in the office. She once lost her car keys somewhere and when it was time for her to go home, she was panicking because she could not find her keys. Good thing someone remembered her emergency spare key inside the office so she went back to get it. To this day, she was not able to find her lost car keys. She promptly brought her car to an automotive locksmith to get her locks changed.

Spare keys are very important to have. Hide it somewhere secure. Lock it inside a cabinet you have access to anytime. Do not make the mistake of locking the keys inside a room which when locked, you would need the keys to get it unlocked. Someone made that mistake in the past and it cost her a pricey doorknob and a chunk of the wood surrounding the knob.

Brain Wave, Work at Home

Different kinds of home-office setups.

February 21, 2021 No Comments

Not every individual works the same way. Some can sit still for hours, gets up only for bathroom breaks. Some has to get up every now and then to be able to think clearly. Doing the office renovation has taught us exactly that. Let’s start with the home-office for messy individuals.

A trip to the hardwood store is a must for this kind of home-office setup. Smooth and even flooring is needed for the messy individuals. Cabinets, lots of storage spaces, boxes. The messy ones need to locate their stuff in order for them to work properly and efficiently.

For this kind of workers, the end justifies the means. It does not really matter how messy and disorganized their work space is as long as they deliver what is being asked of them.

Their essentials: large desks/tables, a simple chair, and storage space.

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On to the next kind of worker… the neat and organized ones.

The home-office setup for the neat and organized individuals should be as “sterile” as their personalities. Nothing out of place on a clean desk, no document unfiled. Paint on walls is neutral, mostly white and gray. Floor is carpeted because you know they like things muted especially the noise.

Their essentials: a neat and simple desk and chair, an in-and-out document tray on top of the desk, magazine boxes, and filing cabinets.

Then, there are home-office setups for individuals always-on-the-move. Those who can’t stay still for long periods of time. These are the workers who need to get up from their workstations every so often to get their adrenaline going. They need to stand up, walk around, go somewhere for short breaks in order to pump their energy to work effectively.

Their essentials: a movable table or desk that they can bring anywhere they feel like working. No need for a chair because they can stand while working or sit down anywhere they can move their table to. Area rugs, couches, pillows, cushions that they can use when they feel like hankering down somewhere to concentrate and work.

Of course, there is always the traditional home-office setup for the old-fashioned workers who can work when seated down on a chunky desk with a swivel chair, a reading lamp on top of the desk, an area rug, a fireplace perhaps, window bringing in natural light behind them, and a closed door when the working hours is up.

We can all relate to these types of home-office setups. We have seen it, we have one or two in our homes, and we have encountered the type of workers who use them. They may be our parents, an older family member, or even you and I.

Brain Wave, Health and medicine

Keto Diet and Intermittent Fasting

February 20, 2021 No Comments

diet At one point you may have heard the terms “keto” diet and “intermittent” fasting. Ketogenic Diet is a low-carb diet wherein an individual cuts back on food high in carbohydrates like rice, bread, pasta, soda, pastries. Individuals who are on a keto diet get their calories from proteins and fats. On the other hand, an Intermittent Fasting is an eating routine wherein an individual switches from fasting, normally for sixteen hours, and eats only for the remaining eight hours of the day.

During a fridge repair a couple of months ago when I became aware of intermittent fasting. I was already contemplating that time about losing unwanted pounds and my sister mentioned it to me. I dismissed it at first, thinking it was another fad in a long line of diet plans that came and went. Then, I saw a friend doing exactly that. In her case, she was even doing OMAD or one meal a day, while doing intermittent fasting. Whew! I asked her about it and she told me that it was, in fact, very effective in losing unwanted pounds and keeping it from coming back. She started with the basic intermittent fasting, 8:16. Eight hours of window for eating, sixteen hours of fasting. It was easy for her so she started stretching her fasting hours from sixteen to eighteen up to twenty six hours that time I found out about her diet. I was sure I could not do it no matter how much encouragement she was sending my way.

Is Intermittent Fasting effective? In my personal opinion, yes, it does. Imagine starving your body for sixteen hours (basic fasting period). Hours without food, our bodies burn fat and exhaust sugar stored in it. That translates to weight loss especially for longer periods of time that you are fasting.

How about Ketogenic Diet? Similar to intermittent fasting, when the body exhausts the sugar stored in it, you will lose weight. Eating less than 50 grams a day, burning sugar fast, after a few days you start losing unwanted pounds in your body and, for me, that’s an effective way of dieting. It is hard, yes, but many individuals have been doing it nowadays.

What is my choice between the two? I am all for intermittent fasting! I have tried it once and I was able to do it for a month. I lost weight that, thankfully, I have not gained back again even when I stopped fasting. I plan to do it again. A doctor-friend of mine told me that fasting is also good since our bodies regenerate good cells when under fast. Those with diabetes are great candidates, too, but with the supervision of their doctors and nutritionists.

All in all, my take on dieting is this: whatever works for you. As long as the diet is good for the body and truly promotes weight loss in the most natural way, then, go for it!

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