MOVING ON

Today, I'm humbled to have received a gift-in-kind from one of my Amazon.com storefront customers who bought his book, which he expected was in German, from me. I failed to see that the book's description was supposed to be in German when I was listing my copy for sale. And so I sent my customer the wrong one. He messaged me to let me know about the fact. I apologized and offered to refund him his payment plus the shipment fee if he would kindly return the wrong item to me as soon as possible.  He said it's OK and that he would keep the book. I'm amazed at this development. I'm remain grateful for the experience of having met an online customer who chose not to make so much fuss about his  buying experience with me. And I'll cherish the honor of having met such a customer. Thank you, again.

On What Michelle Obama Wore When She Came Along With Barack Obama in Saudi Arabia I remarked "awesome!" With a sharing of a posting that received at least 10 likes and 2 shares from my Facebook network, I received an admonition from someone who believes otherwise that what Michelle Obama was not harmful..... Someone wrote down in my Facebook timeline "Why it would be awesome! ! Does respecting other people culture become a sin or f*ck a hit to them !! Ur not belongs to this region of the world .. as we never criticised ur damin open style you are living which against the sole of real Christinty .. don't share such stupid articles which only add hates between people . THANKS" The same person added: " By the way .. am not saudi and i dont wana be , its all about understand and respect" I replied: " U r entitled to ur own opinion, _______ --- that's essential in a real democracy --- & i respect ur right to express ur o

More books ready for listing in my online storefronts anytime from now A photo posted by Jerome Espinosa Baladad (@dyerohmeb) on Jul 14, 2014 at 8:28am PDT Something good must have been happening because I have come to realize I've been growing several online bookstore storefronts these past 5 years or so. It mainly started from having to schlep all my books every time I move to new dwellings. The collection of books has been brought about by my main occupation as a writer, a job that so many other New York City (NYC) dwellers share with me. I have to make a living out of my writings, so I would figure out ways to make money from all these activities I do that are related to my main job as a writer.  I know that a bookstore will have better chances of growing and making money if it has items that are ready for the selection and buying of the shopper who happened to looking for particular printed materials at such unpredictable times. I don't worry much about

Read the article on TNYT here. Even businesses, which are owned and managed by people, have moving on experiences. Certain changes can't be helped, if you get to see how changes have continuously enveloped this 'much expensive' section of Manhattan. In this particular case, I see it's technology that has brought about the actual moving on event to unfold and take place. And so many people's lives would be affected as this moving on process continues to take place. Somewhat dreaded (it seems to me) by some, we can all learn to be prepared to face our respective moving on experiences. The process is not exclusive to human beings, as we all get to become more familiar with 'Moving On' while we go about doing and pursuing our respective lives. It's not something I invented - I just happened to experience it so strongly many years ago and have decided to face it and highlight it in my writing works. Don't take it against yourself if you're very

I'm still somewhat affected by what I heard from a cousin told me while we were heading back from our trip upstate NY to New Jersey. Of course, he meant well but I'm still somewhat disturbed that certain people couldn't help but be prejudiced against gay people like myself. I won't repeat anymore the details here as they're still hurting. Suffice it to say that one of my cousin's friends shared him what she's thought of me as a person because she, most probably, couldn't stand my being a gay person. Of course, she added that she has her own share of gay friends, who apparently are not like me. And, of course, she didn't tell me directly---most Filipinos won't do that. They do it through channels, which was just like what she did when she told her husband who is also a friend of my cousin, on what she thought of me. I happened to have accepted their invite for me to sleep at their place in New Jersey, and she apparently doubted if my cousin and

Today's my last day from this job that I was doing for over 5 years in return for board and lodging with someone in Stapleton, Staten Island, NYC. He thought of me mainly as a housekeeper. I would cook, clean, do some other odd jobs so I'd have board and lodging in his 23-room house that he proudly says he rebuilt when he bought it over 22 years or so ago. Oh, well, I'm greatly relieved and grateful that this arrangement has stopped effectively today. How it ended wasn't really that positive, and so I won't dwell with that anymore. Suffice it to say that he tended to deal with me as his employee, more than anything else, so his very capricious tastes of running his household would be followed. To do otherwise would mean that I'd feel bad over the kind of work that I do, despite the fact that he's really abusive as a human being. Also, he's made it a point to contact someone who replaced me whom he has never regarded as someone worthy of meeting his capri

We had a roommate here in our Stapleton, Staten Island house one time and who briefly stayed with us, as in less than a week if I recall it right. He's a paramedic, of small stature, a native New Yorker, and with a bearded face (then). He's a sweet fellow and soft spoken. What surprised me a lot about him was how he almost looks like a paradoxical figure to my mind up to now and he's one of those who could change his image in a few days, perhaps like a chameleon. That's precisely why I got to chat with him as I was thinking he's a new fellow who's living or most probably visiting us. I usually remember faces even if I've not seen them in long years, but in this case, I failed to recognize that I was talking with the same guy whom I met one evening when I came home to have him introduced to me by our landlord. On that afternoon occasion while I was doing my chores around the house, my curiosity got me and I decided to ask him how's he doing. I would soo