Oh, the Interesting Possibilities...

On Education
I was browsing through Quirky's Pricing Game when I came across the case for Raspberry Pi. Imagine my excitement, when I thought of the endless possibilities that we can do with it when it comes to nation building!!!

Okay, Raspberry Pi is not a food but a credit-card sized computer that costs almost similar to a textbook. It sells around $25-35 which would be around 1,000-1,400PHP. I think my finance book costed about 800PHP (which I bought for half a price because it was second hand). If you want to know more, you can check out their main website. It runs on Linux and is open-source... And, well, me not being the most techie person out there, I believe you can just search them out in Google for other specs.

I think that underdeveloped countries can really have a go at this. Back when I was in college, I had to do school profiling for some public schools and they were in dire need of computers. It's cheap and a great starter for any community that's interested in getting things started in the right direction~

On Trading
As we're on the topic of nation-building, an American news channel (I forgot which one) was also doing a feature on some fishermen in the States who were using the internet to directly target consumers to buy straight from the day's catch. Based on their data, 50-80% of seafood source are usually sent to repackaging sites (mostly to China) but possibly go bad by the time it gets to resellers or grocery stores-which means that it isn't as fresh and at the same time, isn't as sustainable.

What they do is try to eliminate the middle-men so that people can directly converse with the fishermen, know where they get it (which sea they get the catch, how they operate, etc...). A person who purchases from ilovebluesea.com can usually get the fish within 24-48 hours so it stays fresh.

I was conversing with my friend (her family farms) and she mentioned to me how difficult farming was in the Philippines since it involved some middle-men. I can see that we've a lot to go from here. I mean, we don't even have good infrastructure and great internet connection but I think we're off to a good start. I know a lot of NGOs are really working to get things to happen.

I'd just like to say, again... Oh! The interesting possibilities!!

New Find~ Lorenz: Naturals (Sea Salt & Pepper)

While I was grocery shopping with my dad last Thursday (May 16, 2013) in SM Savemore, I felt so happy to find a product called Naturals from Lorenz. In the Phillippines, it's distributed by Goodway Int'l Trading Corp. in Quezon City. The flavor was Sea Salt and Pepper- made with all natural ingredients. Well, the truth is, the reason why I was excited with it was because of the quality and its price. Imported goods usually cost 80-100PHP. This one only costs less than 30PHP even if it was made in Germany~ Similarly priced as artificially flavored local snacks in the market. Very competitive, right? I munched on it with my dad while paying at the cashier, it tasted very good!

I'm sure that the people who buy non-artificially flavored snacks are as gleeful as I am!

I'm really pleased yet at the same time, not surprised. The truth is, as some of us may know, some companies have to raise their prices when they can actually give it at a cheaper price. FYI to anyone who's interested... When Lacoste first opened, they lost sales because they didn't have a high price. After they started aiming for a higher price range and market, people started buying. Now, they are quite popular, aren't they? The reality is, some people associate price with quality more than actually reading the package and discerning what they buy. I hope we can really be more capable of getting quality goods at the right prices. (Oh, if anyone has tips and tricks about great bargains, I'd love to know~)

I'm optimistic that a little more into the future, these organic and safer food products will be priced for the masses. I mean, it's not even supposed to be a privilege to eat safe food. It's supposed to be basic. Of course, businesses can't really drive the prices down, consumers also have to cooperate because they might close down if they're not earning enough. Hopefully, people can be more active in spreading something great because when there's more demand, prices usually go down, as economics would say...

Last note! If you know great items at the right price, feel free to post it here~ <3

My Grandma Peanut Butters

I love food! Really, it's so amazing how the mouth just takes in that first bite and those blissful feelings of happiness come to me. That is, if I find it appealing!

Being a young old-minded person that I am, I'm crazily obsessed about looking for more natural products. A lot of people don't really seem to care if there's too much MSG, food coloring, preservatives and artificial flavoring thrown into what we put in our mouths since they come out anyway... But, well, they do have their consequences. Perhaps not now, but, maybe years after when we've got one leg amputated because of diabetes or something like that, maybe then we'd think things through and say, "Hmm... I think I shouldn't have eaten that too much, that one too & well, I guess that one also..."

I used to think that peanut butters that were oily were bad. I mean, in my house, we put tissue papers in pork-chops to get rid of the oil. I talked to one of my friends who made homemade peanut butters that finally confirmed that natural peanut butters in the market do no have the same consistency as theirs. Which means one thing, dum-dum-dum... Yes, we have to take out some of the oil before we eat it. For those who don't mind the oil, trick here is to mix it then place it in the fridge to stop the oil from settling on top.

Anyway, going to the real focus of the story, I'd just like to give the limelight to my two most favorite peanut butters as of this moment.

1) Lily's Peanut Butter

Ingredients: Peanuts, Cane Sugar & Iodized Salt. 

Price is also relatively affordable for Filipinos since it's a local product. This can be seen in Filipino stores in the United States, Europe, Japan, China, Hongkong, UAE and more!

2) Laura Scudder's Old Fashioned Peanut Butter

Ingredients: Peanuts, Salt (1% or less).

I guess this one's a little expensive since it's imported. My dad bought it from S&R because it was on sale. Nevertheless, it says in Wikipedia that the owner "[A]t one point, [...] turned down a $9 million offer for the company because the buyer wouldn't guarantee her employees' jobs. In 1957 she finally accepted a $6 million offer from a buyer who guaranteed job security for her workforce."  Unfortunately, the owner of the company is already gone (a.k.a. she has passed away). As for how the story went on, it's still open ended!

I do hope that there will be more "inspiring" entrepreneurs that lead the generation~ No I'm off to grab a bite of peanut butter sandwich!

Image Source: 
* Lily's Peanut Butter
* Laura Scudder's Peanut Butter

Source:
Laura Scudder's and Lily's official websites.

Erratum:
Sept. 17, 2013: Updated the third paragraph with information regarding peanut butter's consistency.

For the Year's Kickstarter...

I've been meaning to write a blog since the first of January but I haven't been able to think of a good topic. Lately, I've been wanting to write about hopefully, something more insightful.

First off, I just opened up an online shop with the same name as my blog. Yay for me~ (If you click, I know, I know, it's not really the best but anyway, forgive me for my low graphics and HTML prowess.)

Cara Main Website

The first thing I uploaded there was my friend's cosmetic line Cara. (She acquired exclusive distributorship this Oct. 2012). Just a side note, type Cara on search engines & you'll get many brands with the same name. I tried searching it online & nothing that I wanted to see actually matches up. Cara Cosmetics usually pops up in search engines as an American brand. Looking into it a bit more, their main page is actually called http://carecara.com. Unfortunately, for now, the English site is kinda sparse that's why I decided to look for more info about the company itself.

Now to bore you in great detail, here's some interesting stuff ;) Well, to start off Cara is part of SK Group of Companies. Right now, they're the third largest cheabol (a.k.a. conglomerate) in South Korea. They are mostly known for their telecommunication holdings, among others. This video is one ad about a cellphone from SK.

Their cosmetics part is under some umbrella branch so in some countries, the name of the brand is SK Cara. Under that are some umbrella brands such as The Face Shop*. Side note here (^.^), some reviews were not really great about The Face Shop. I was a little surprised to find out that in America it was a little bit pricey for some. Note, however, that for Koreans, local Korean cosmetics like Skinfood or Faceshop is like Ever Bilena or Careline here in the Philippines (basically speaking, it's a local brand, not imported & relatively cheap).

Now, Cara on the other hand, as my distributor friend claims, has HIGHER natural ingredients than The Face Shop and Skinfood. Can you believe that? HIGHER!! The down side, on the other hand, is that pigmentation is not as great as, say, Nyx? It's around the same quality range as La Neige which I think justifies itself. 

Just to pull up my friend's leg though, (which I believe is blushing right now), AND NO... for everyone's sake, she did not pay me to do this. I just wrote this because I like the marketing concept of the whole thing. 

I'd say she picked a very good brand. Why? Mostly because it's not as popular. It relies on word of mouth to market itself. Cara doesn't usually do radio or TV commercials in Korea, as what is the trend there, in order to save consumers the expense of their product. In effect it's not as well known as some other local cosmetic brands. Also, it decided to be more pro-active in exporting itself to find bigger markets. At present, it's being sold to 16 countries (Philippines being the 17th, Canada, Portugal, Spain, China, etc...) & has been selling abroad for 10 years.  It wants to be more consumer friendly for the price of it's quality.

One thing to note though, make-up is really not about what looks great on other people. It's really about trying on the product for yourself. Truth is, I can't really recommend it to everyone because I'm not sure how the make-up matches with every skin. For example, my friend, Monique, has really dry skin so all she does is wash her face with water. I on the other hand, just do what my dermatologist recommends me. Hahaha.. I had to take medication & now I have clearer skin.

As an ender, one can say this: the more beautiful you become inside, the better you look on the outside. That, a rephrased version, based on  a true and tested adage of my dear Teacher.

Sources:

* http://samily0710.blogspot.com/2011/05/old-sk-cara-haul-short-little.html

Images:
- http://carecara.com

For Love of Books...

I'm a book lover myself so when I came across this one in Solar Channel, I couldn't help but share...

Inquirer Lifestyle mentioned that there is a Republic Act-RA 7743 that provides for the establishment of libraries for barangay, municipal, city and congressional levels but this isn’t being implemented properly. Gunlao says he does what he can.

As for me, I think it's a great way to serve the community but like drinking, sometimes books can also be very addictive. I kinda got into trouble because of my hobby. Hahaha... Looking back, I think that proper timing and introduction of books is important. Knowing personal maturity for a reader is also a must. As I was too hardheaded, I insisted on reading novels that were too mature for me. Later on I realized that it has made me lost a sense of innocence. I hope that in addition to creating more libraries, taking care of what is placed inside our minds, that lead to what can generate our interests, can also be given some importance.

Cheers to these types of people! They allowing us to gain inspirations through what they are doing!! As for those interested, The Reading Club 2000 is located at 1454 Balagtas St., Barangay La Paz, Makati City. Their contact details are 0915-7291526 or one can e-mail them via readingclub2000@yahoo.com*

Fight, Philippines!

Sources:
* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/21/hernando-guanlao-_n_1902323.html
* http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/50687/ex-libris-2