In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

What does a young child feels when she left her home in Asia and live in America? What are the hardships? What are the experiences? What are the happiness?

These are the questions that the book “In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson” tried to answer and this book presented the answer in a heartwarming and enjoyable way that made it one of my most liked books when I was in college.
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In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord.

The book is about a Chinese girl named Shirley Temple Wong. She and her mother left their close relatives in China and live with her father in USA. Through the eyes of the child, we saw how she struggled to be part of the new world. She tried to learn the new customs, made new friends, and became a fan of the baseball legend Jackie Robinson.

What I like about this book is that the author managed to tell the story through the child. The pretenses and the biases of an adult person were removed. USA is shown through the eye of an immigrant Chinese girl. The author let the character tell the story.

The book is warm and at some points funny. It is really hard to live in a new country, especially in the USA, but does doesn’t mean that there are no light moments. So whenever I want to have a quick read, I would just flip the pages of “In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson” and enjoy the story of Shirley Temple Wong.

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Image came from CEDU.

Buying Cellphone Batteries

When I bought my second-hand Nokia 5610, I discovered that its battery is bloated and it can’t recognize any microSD card. I went to Nokia Customer Care Center in SM City Manila and they said that the cause of my microSD card problem is the bloated cellphone battery that prevents the memory card from being locked to the phone. The technician said that the bloated cellphone battery is a sign that it is over-charged and may explode if not replaced soon. He suggested that I hut a new battery to fix my problems.

The price of the original battery for Nokia 5610 is about 1,200 pesos. That is too expensive for my budget so I tried to find some alternatives. I discovered that there many batteries for Nokia phones that are not original Nokia batteries but at a cheaper price.

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1. Ask Around or Do Some Canvass

I discovered about the alternative battery for my Nokia 5610 by doing a price a canvass. I asked visited different shops and asked for available cellphone batteries. They usually offer the original cellphone battery, the “class A” cellphone battery, and the Lim Hong cellphone battery. I asked about the warranties and the prices for each battery so I know what is the best deal for me.

2. Investigate Through the Internet

Before buying, I do some little investigation using the Internet so that I will what is the reaction of some people on the battery that I am choosing to buy. Reactions of other buyers are valuable in knowing if the cellphone battery that you will buy for your is reliable.

3. Buy from Legitimate Shops

There are street vendors who sell cellphone batteries. Avoid buying batteries from them because they do not give warranty to the products that you bought. If the battery is defective, then you will find it hard press them for a replacement. I bought my batteries from a shop inside the mall so that I could easily visit them if the battery for my Nokia 5610 is defective.

4.  Ask for Discounts

Buying from a shop inside a mall does not mean that you could not strike any discount. Ask for discount. I bought my Lim Hong cellphone battery with a discount of 100 pesos from the original price.

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Image of BP-5M cellphone battery from After Market Cellular.

How to Keep Your Home Dengue Free

The cases of dengue already reached 7,000 last week and about 500 people died. According to the news, most of the dengue victims are children and infants. As of the moment, wards of government hospitals are filled with patients waiting to be healed. Because of this, the government stepped up its campaign to stop the dengue outbreak. We should also do something to prevent the outbreak of dengue and protect our family.

Here are some steps that you could do to stop dengue:

Dengue Mosquito.

1. Remove Stagnant Water

It is known fact that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the carrier of dengue, breeds on stagnant water. Be sure to remove all stagnant water in your home to deny mosquitoes their breeding places.

2. Spray Insecticide before Nighttime

Dengue mosquitoes usually bite at dusk, so it is good to spray insecticide inside your house during these time to shoo away dengue carrying mosquitoes. Dengue mosquitoes may also bite during the day, but usually in the shady areas. However, be careful using insecticides because there are research that too much inhalation of insecticide is bad for the health.

3. Protect Your Skin from Insect Bites

School principals allowed their students to wear jogging pants in school so as to protect them from mosquito bites. You could also do that when you are at home. Also, you could also apply mosquito repellants on your skin so as to keep mosquitoes at bay.

It is also recommended to use mosquito nets when you are sleeping to keep mosquitoes away from you and your family while you are sleeping. Just make sure that mosquitoes can’t pass through your mosquito net.

4. Kill Mosquitoes with Bug Zapper

Electric bug zappers are available in the supermarket for a low price. This gadget can kill mosquitoes better than the regular fly swatter. I also recommend buying Imarflex Electric Mosquito Killer.

5. Rouse Your Neighbors in Making Your Community Dengue Free

Making your home dengue free does not mean that your family will be safe from dengue. If your neighbors have stagnant water inside their homes, then you efforts will be put to waste since mosquitoes coming from your neighbors houses will also visit your home. Thus, to ensure that every home will be safe from dengue, the whole must act collectively to make the whole community free from dengue.

Finally, if you notice that any of your family is having fever or showing symptoms of Dengue, then don’t hesitate to bring them to the nearest hospital. Always remember every moment matters when you have a case of Dengue.

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Picture of Aedes Aegypti mosquito from WikiCommon.
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