Ian Mallari's Blog

Follow this link to see what we special thing we have for you this coming Valentines!

As seen from the relatively small image from above, WE HAVE A VALENTINE PROMO! So a few points of explanation

BROWNIE CAKES

These are large, uncut brownies that are topped with chocolates with customized markings. Call or text in advance to get your very special BROWNIE CAKE delivered to your loved one (yourself included) with the special marking at 09228488780.

PRESELLING

We are preselling our Chocolate Topped Brownies (those that looked like checkers). Order now and you'll get a P10 discount! You can get your brownies in the Business Incubator next week, Monday or Wednesday, depending on when your ordered.

Again, please contact 09228488780 to order.

We released a fresh batch of our offerings today in the Business Incubator. Most of them are for delivery, but there also items reserved for new customers. Please feel free to indulge yourself with our brownies!

Contact us at chocolabchocolates@gmail.com for orders, or at 0922-8488852.

We're releasing crinkles next week! We've already got it out of the 'taste-test barrier' and we're expecting to give your palates the delight of tasting it. Price still to be announced. Just send us a message and we're going to deliver!

This is our very first "In the Lab" entry. This kind of entries would refer to products/services or ingredients that are under a trial period. We're not guaranteeing that the product/service or ingredients mentioned here will be part of the official ChocoLab product lines. But you're welcome to try them out. :)

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Hi!

We're currently experimenting and market testing a new offering: Caramel Bars. We're looking for about 10 people* who would like to try it out for free and give us a review. If you're interested, please reply to this post and we will contact you immediately for additional details.






*number subject to change.

Financial crisis hitting the US, and will probably hit us, too. If equities start to drop, and some assets become dirt cheap, it's probably time to buy. Just use a very small amount of your money though, because you're just speculating.

Want to learn more about investment? Read something by Robert Kiyosaki or more powerfully, Benjamin Graham.

Will you light a fire on their butts? Or coach them to do the stuff that are needed to be done?

I think the right steps could be these:

1. Think what is best for the team.
2. Imagine the future if that is achieved.
3. Realize how freaking different you are now.
4. Light your OWN butt on FIRE.
5. Think of the steps necessary to get where you want to.
6. Craft a 'story' (something digestible) to communicate these to other people.
7. Tell your team the story.
8. Get them going, and coach them along the way.

Something like this would be nice if it happens in real life, consistently.

The very essence of project management seem to rely on complete management of time, e.g., setting deadlines for the accomplishment of certain tasks till the project is complete. If you can't manage your time, don't even dare to start a project. You'll suffer the ultimate burnout and some sort of depression, after all.

Arghhh!!! It's really excruciating to start your own business. You get to worry about a lot of things, especially if you're the kind of person whose into financial info all the time. Just this afternoon I was thinking how to improve our bottomline back there in ChocoLab.

Though it involves doing something really fulfilling, kickstarting a business is no joke. If you take it like that, you'll die in a few short months in your business life. That's why good entrepreneurship is done by teams and not individuals. Some gets to enjoy the creation of it, and then someone has to take the role of maintaining order from chaos. For this project, I'm taking it.

Wish the best for me, friend. :)

Just wanted to post this "translated" lyrics of Split by Suneohair. Originally japanese, but anyway, here it is:

If these dull emotions could just
Disappear sooner without a word
It would have been easier

When I gazed at you
I saw myself trembling in your eyes
I opened my mouth as though I had a blank expression

We went on our separate paths
At that crossroad
It pains me so much that
We may never meet again

Gathering emotions which are lacking
Things that were warmed just a while ago have grown cold
I couldn’t believe something like that
Just how long am I going to hold on to the same words?
How long am I going to hold on…

When I continue to gaze at you
The seasons changed in your eyes
My new light which I’ve not known before

We will walk our separate paths
Now, at that crossroad
I can never look back again
My feelings are too overwhelming

You embrace me in the night that is about to disappear
Entangling me with your body which has grown cold
I feel that something is lacking
Just how long have I been holding on to
Lies and sighs to the point of falling apart?

Gathering emotions which are lacking
Things that were warmed just a while ago have grown cold
I couldn’t believe something like this
Just how long am I going to hold on to the same words?
How long am I going to hold on…

Original Japanese:

Arifurete iru kimochi nante sa
Nani mo iwazu ni isso
Kieteshimaeba raku ni nareru no ni
Mitsume atteta kimi no hitomi ni
Utsuru jibun ga yurete
Toboketayou ni kuchi wo aketa mama

Sorezore no michi wo yuku sono wakaremichi
Mou nidoto au koto no nai deai wa kanashisugiru

Tarinai kimochi wo mochiyotte
Atatameta saki kara hieteitte
"Sonna hazunai" tte shinjiteru
Ittai itsumade onaji kotoba wo
Kakaekondenda
Kakaekondenda

Mitsume tsudzukeru kimi no hitomi ni
Utsuru keshiki ga kawatta
Boku no shiranai atarashii hikari
Sorezore ni michi wo yuku
Ima wakaremichi
Mou nidoto furikaeranai kimochi ga hashirisugiru

Kiesouna yoru ni nakiatte
Hiekitta karada de motsuretatte
"Nani ka tarinai" tte kanjiteru
Ittai itsu kara uso no tameiki wo
Kakaekondenda

Sasaekirenai koto

Tarinai kimochi wo mochiyotte
Atatameta saki kara hieteitte
"Konna hazunai" tte shinjiteru
Ittai itsumade onaji kotoba wo
Kakaekondenda
Kakaekondenda
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Just remembered it because of a "Honey and Clover" moment.

After Lucky's Red Box and Movie treat, I went home thinking why, for some reason, that no matter how a person dedicates himself to a task, he still fails at it. Why, for some reason, a great effort is not greatly rewarded... It's because one only THOUGHT he did exert a LOT of effort, when in fact, it was NOT ENOUGH. I should have stopped thinking right there, but then, I wasn't convinced that this was the only reason. I put my mind at work, asking myself repeatedly why is this and why is that. You know, the brain is a beautiful thing: it knows almost all the answers, you just have to be patient and know the right questions. Before I slept, I received the answer I was looking for: if you're determined to succeed, you can't be an OPTIMIST and a PESSIMIST at the same time. It just wouldn't work. You'll think bad, weird stuff, and you're emotions get all conflicted. It's like when your about to jump off a burning building with fireman waiting for you down there with a safety net, but you're worried you'll lose your legs. It's like when your face to face with a killer holding a knife and you pointing a gun at him, but you're worried about killing him. It's like kissing the woman of your dreams,with her lips waiting, but you're worried she might not like it. In short, being both is just plain STUPID. I'm not saying here that one should blindly spring at every opportunity that presents itself: I say to SPRING AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY THAT PRESENTS ITSELF. Real optimism, after all, is not blind. Only fools would leap blindly like that, and I have no intention, nor anybody else, of being a fool.

People are forced to conform. You really can't help but do it, as long as you're part of a society. It's for order's sake. Sometimes we suppress our personality when we conform. We get worried if people think the way we look at things is 'weird'. We make changes, we tweak ourselves, until we arrive at some generic form of a smiling and pleasing DOLL of the mob. I think that's wrong. Even stupid. We can't help it most of the time: we can't help but be stupid. But people do feel something when conformity is making them clam their personalities shut. This is especially true for those who are normally expressive of themselves. So when you feel that, think again on how much you have changed for the sake of being in the crowd. Maybe you sacrificed too much of your personality that you're the same as anyone in it.

Buttery Blend A fancy story once went like this: A curious girl went and miss The love of the man she thought as friend Because she liked the buttery blend The buttery blend was an amazing thing Even its name made her ears ring In fact her skin looked almost the same As that mixed goodness of world fame Yet the man looked on, and saw her face He can not remove himself from this place! Her beauty is that no one can match But like a ghost, it was difficult to catch So with this problem, he sought an answer Long his thoughts were, they begin to waver In his sleep, he saw what he must be done The buttery blend should, will be gone! He laid the plans, and made sure That when destroyed there will be no cure For that buttery blend, that goodness, banished “She will go to me, happiness famished” And when he stroke, and the brought the end Of that loved, heavenly, buttery blend She cried and cried, and crows came Dead, that mixed goodness of world fame.. Thus the story somehow ended With the girl’s heart lie un-mended For his plans did not consider Her love was with him never, ever...

Of tunneling moles, I dare not speak Wounds they create that always reek Soundless tunes of souls abound In the imagination… Of rising crows, I always hear Their morning caws, make me fear That I’ll lose you, my formless ghost In the dreamland... In the end, this may be for naught I’ll soon be dead than be caught Of loving her, that formless ghost In the pain pits...

Red, blood and tear Thy face, flow, smear Secrets hidden Secrets given Am I betrayed? Sweet temptress… Alluring yet formless Forward I say Pushed me away Do you love him? Questions abound Facts confound Where will all go, Red revenant?

Where in the world does a barrier exist
Between him and her where love persists
But in the heart of him who always asks
"Should I continue to wear this mask?"

Who does he think he deceives
When his friends perhaps perceives
That thing he hides deep in the pits
Though he wonder where it all fits

And thus he allow the growth of silence
Against the shout of roaring dissidence
Amidst this chaos, can that Light revive?
Is it his fault, this darkest divide?

Working with a partner sure is great, but what if your visions don't match sometimes? Do you compromise, or do you fight for your views?

I can't sleep, even though I am so tired from all the planning that was done today. So exhausted, but the coffee from Starbucks has probably affected me. But it should have worn out hours ago...

Instead, I think that there's something bothering me. People get bothered by a lot of things, but somehow they can deal with it. For some reason I can't deal with an annoying feeling this time.

I just realized something: all of us are living our lives, in the present, while chasing our dreams for the future. Some may see it, some may not. Still, everybody would go somewhere after some point in time.

You would probably feel the same way, too, when you realize that all of this would lead to a separation of paths. Time passes by, and we will reach our own roads sooner than we thought. Every friend, every experience: they will be there only as memories... only as memories.

You wouldn't be able to touch them, to feel them again. They are just there, in front of your eyes, unreachable.... as you look back in the past.

Do some people give up their dreams because they don't want to keep things just as a memory? Perhaps. Imagining the feeling at that point makes me almost depressed... that point when you last see the smiles of your friends, personally, when you decide to go chase your faraway dream.

Still, I feel that I won't give up my dream. This is my work: I've got something to add to this world. The moment when I promised to myself that this life would be meaningful, I meant it. You should, too.

Now all I've got to do is to make the best memories I can with the friends that I have.

Do you stop when things look bad, or do you push on till things get better?

What would be the wiser action to take, and how would you know it?

I think, at least business wise, <a href="http://www.changethis.com/34.01.TheDip">The Dip</a> answers this.

For me and some other dilemma of a 'redder' nature, I still don't have any answer.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_page_id=1965&in_article_id=468806 Click on the link above to see how researchers have found out that for teenage girls, talking about their problems is actually bad for their health. Well, for men out there, though they may like to talk about it, don't encourage them for too long. They might blame you when they eventually experience depression.