On Tasks and Case Study

I'm still awake. It's not really that late at night but because the weather is cold with the rain outside, it's just so tempting to lie down and sleep. But I still have some writing tasks that is due in a couple of hours. So, I have to fight the temptation to sleep and do my work.

I always liked to write though I know for a fact that I'm just a mediocre writer. I remember during my university days when we were asked to write a case study for our Communications 2 class. We have to write our paper on our own because the final exam is a 'defense' in which the professor will grill us with so many questions. So, our defense day came and I was so nervous. This professor looked very gentle from the outside but is known to be a 'terror' teacher too. I could remember that I prayed non stop that morning because I was already so scared not to defend my study and end up failing a 'general subject'. What made me even more scared was that my classmate who had her defense before me, came out from our professor's room crying. Oh no!

But indeed God answered my prayer because when it was my turn to go inside the room and defend my paper, I was already so calm and was able to answer my professor's interrogation. When my defense was finished and came out from the room, I was so relieved and I felt like jumping up and down. Wohoo!

So, that was one of my scary but victorious experience during my university days. It was a bit tough but I was able to pass through victoriously. I even didn't have the need to avail of writing services. I know of a few people who avail of writing service to write their custom papers. I'm not sure though how they answer their teacher's when it comes to defend their papers. Hmm..

Wordfilled Wednesday - Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm 73:26

This is the song and the prayer of my heart during this season of our lives.
---

For more Word Filled Wednesday entries, please click the badge below.

note: The photo was taken by my Hubby during his trip to Nepal. People of all ages walk for hours and even days before they reach their destination.

Mead Johnson, Maker of Enfamil, Loses Multi-Million Dollar False Advertising Case Against Store-Bran

This is a sponsored guest post written by a Press Release on behalf of PBM Products. Post powered by Sponzai.

GORDONSVILLE, VA., December 2 , 2009—PBM Products, LLC, a leading infant formula company that supplies store-brand infant formulas to Walmart, Sam's Club, Target, Kroger, Walgreens, and other retailers, has received a favorable jury verdict and a $13.5 million damages award in its false advertising lawsuit against Mead Johnson & Co., the operating subsidiary of Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (NYSE: MJN) (“Mead Johnson”), the makers of the national-brand Enfamil® LIPIL® Infant Formula. Mead Johnson is 83 percent-owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

PBM’s lawsuit claimed that Mead Johnson engaged in false and misleading campaigns against PBM’s competing store-brand of infant formulas, suggesting they do not provide the same nutrition as Mead Johnson’s brands. PBM’s store-brand infant formulas cost up to 50 percent less than Enfamil® LIPIL®. The $13.5 million in damages awarded by the jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is one of the largest damages awards ever for a false advertising case.

“This decision by a jury of the people confirms that Mead Johnson’s ads have been false in suggesting that there is a nutritional difference between our store-brand formula products and their products, when in fact the only major difference is price,” said PBM CEO Paul B. Manning. “Despite Mead Johnson’s scare tactics, parents are assured that PBM’s formula products are as high quality and nutritious as Mead Johnson’s.”

U.S. District Court Judge James R. Spencer issued his written rulings yesterday following the November 10^th jury verdict. Judge Spencer’s written rulings permanently enjoined Mead Johnson from making any false statements concerning PBM's infant formula, including the claims Mead Johnson previously made in Enfamil advertising that "It may be tempting to try a less expensive store brand, but only Enfamil LIPIL is clinically proven to improve brain and eye development," and "there are plenty of other ways to save on baby expenses without cutting back on nutrition." The Court also ordered Mead Johnson to retrieve from the public domain all advertising or promotional materials containing these or any other false claims about PBM's store brand infant formula.

The details of the decision and the complaint are posted online in full at:

· http://www.pbmproducts.com/docs/Order_Laches.pdf

· http://www.pbmproducts.com/docs/PBM_Complaint_MJ_III_LIPIL.pdf

The nutritional supplements under examination in the case are two fats, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid), which Mead Johnson calls “LIPIL®” solely for marketing purposes and touts as promoting infant brain and eye development. PBM’s claim focused on Mead Johnson’s direct mailing to more than 1.6 million parents of an alarming blurry picture of a child’s cartoon duck next to a clear picture of the same image which suggested that anything other than the Enfamil LIPIL® blend of ingredients is inferior and will result in poor eye and brain development. Other parts of the false advertising campaign consist of statements that only Enfamil LIPIL has been proven to confer visual and mental benefits on infants, and store-brand formulas are a “cut-back in nutrition” compared to Enfamil.

PBM successfully argued that these advertisements were false and misleading especially since PBM store- brand infant formulas have the same nutrients at the same levels as Enfamil. PBM infant formulas are formulated to contain DHA and ARA, and are sourced from the same supplier in amounts which equal or exceed the DHA and ARA in Mead Johnson’s Enfamil LIPIL®.

This decision marks the third time PBM Products has sued Mead Johnson for false advertising claims. On the prior occasions Mead Johnson admitted that it made false claims about PBM’s products. It is also the first false advertising case to focus on the issue of DHA and ARA nutritional ingredients in formula, which were introduced into the market in 2003 and have become a staple in recent years by many brands as key components for infant development.

“This jury verdict should send a significant and clear message to Mead Johnson about the way it conducts marketing and advertising for its brands,” said Manning. “This lawsuit also demonstrates our complete commitment to defending our products and the valuable brands of our retail partners.”

“As a parent and supporter of children’s medical research, I take a personal responsibility in assuring our customers that the products we produce are healthy and nutritionally equivalent to brand names like Enfamil® LIPIL®. It is important, especially now, for parents to know that there are lower priced yet highly nutritious store-brand formulas that will provide the same benefit to their children as any national brand name formula product,” Manning added.

The U.S. infant formula market is estimated at $3.4 billion and the global market is estimated at $7.9 billion.

All of PBM’s formulas, and for that matter all of U.S. infant formulas, are subject to the exacting standards of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pursuant to the Infant Formula Act of 1980. This legislation vested FDA with the authority to ensure that all infant formula products sold in the United States provide the necessary levels of identified nutrients required for the growth of healthy babies. For more information, visit this FDA link.

PBM Products was represented by the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP. Partners from the firm’s advertising practice, Harold P. Weinberger and Jonathan M. Wagner in New York, led the team.

About PBM

PBM is privately owned and based in Gordonsville, VA. PBM companies specialize in manufacturing, distributing, and marketing consumer food, nutritional, and pharmaceutical products. For more information, visit www.pbmproducts.com.

Enfamil® LIPIL® are registered trademarks of Mead Johnson & Co.

Yummy Sunday - Cashew Nut Chicken ( Own Version)

It's still Saturday today but I thought of posting my Yummy Sunday earlier while I still have the time. For this week's post, I would like to 'proudly' present my very own version of Thai Cashew Nut Chicken. This dish is one of my favorite Thai dishes so, I thought of trying to cook it on my own. I got the recipe from the web and it's quite a easy to make. And the taste? It taste like Thai Cashew Nut Chicken..haha!

For more Yummy Sunday entries please click the badge below.

Broken Eyeglasses

My Hubby wears eyeglasses. Since we had children, I couldn't count how many times he had to change his eyeglasses because our kids like to meddle with it. Thankfully, the eye glasses he is wearing now has already lasted for more than a year. I remember buying that when we were still in the Philippines. We bought him a new pair there because his old pair was lost during the flood. One of the optical clinics in our city was having a sale at that time so we bought the frame at 50% discount. It's a branded frame and I think that explains why it has last this long even though how many times our li'l boy has tried to meddle with it.

Prescription glasses are really getting more expensive these days. Good thing that there are regular sale and bargains going on so, we can still get good quality ones at a lower cost. I've also heard that Zenni optical sells good quality eyeglasses for a very low price. There's even an article that I read which gave a great review for this company. Yes, it is possible to get quality eyeglasses at a very low cost- at Zenni Optical.

Thankful Thursday 34 - God's Favor

It's been quite awhile since I've joined this meme and I would just like to say that indeed it's good to be back. Joining this meme is truly encouraging as I read such inspiring posts all over the globe.

There are a lot of things that I'm thankful for this week but the highlight on my list this week would be the approval of my Hubby's work permit. When you live on a country that is not your own, processing permits, visas and other legal documents is always a stretching of faith since sometimes the officers are unfriendly or the laws suddenly change. But we're just thankful to God for giving us His favor in granting my Hubby's work permit without any hassles and questions.

I also thank God for another great blessing for our family which is the provision of our finances for my li'l girl's homeschool materials. We are grateful for that someone ( we don't know who) who gave money to our organization telling them that it's for our girl's homeschool materials. Oh, I can't help but cry when I learned about this. Indeed, God is faithful... God bless that person abundantly. So, now I'm so excited because we can finally purchase our dream homeschool program for my kids, Sonlight!

Thank God for his blessings and His great faithfulness!!

For more Thankful Thursday entries, please visit Lyn of Spiritually Unequal Marriage.

Almost Three Years

It has only been three years since I've seriously started blogging but it already seemed like a long time. Earlier on, I've already started to blog using one of the social networking sites. I started a blog for my li'l girl because I thought that I won't have any thing interesting to write about myself. Then, later I used the Yahoo 360 and blogged more about our family activities, experiences and whereabouts as a way to update our families back in the Philippines. Then, my friend Janet introduced me to blogger and from then on, I've entered a higher dimension into the blogosphere.

It was then that I realized that there are thousands of other bloggers like me who live life simply and it's okay to write about ourselves, our experiences and our thoughts. At first, I was even so shy to befriend and comment on other people's site. It took me a few weeks before I came out of my shell, introduced myself to other bloggers and comment on their sites as well. Then, on the year 2008 through my friend's encouragement, I also joined the 'club' on monetizing my blog. And it was then I learned more things about the web and have found out the meaning of SEO, website hosting, page rank and etc. If you were to ask me about web hosting three years ago, I woudn't know what you're talking about. But ask me now and I think I have a better understanding of this term and can even give a site with a web hosting guide.

Anyways, so much of things has happened in the past 3 years in the blog world. Now, I'm even amazed at the rate of how bloggers and blogs are increasing everyday. I'm sure that in the next few years, blogging will be as common as emailing then.

Blog Update

It's just now that I realized that I haven't been updating this blog so much. "I'm sorry, Bloggie, your so-called writer has been busy and lazy to write posts these days." Anyways, there's not much update on my side of the planet here. We've already settled in our newly rented house and I've been busy with kids. Indeed, life with a toddler and a pre schooler has made my hands full... and I haven't even started homeschooling yet!

Anyways, once I get our daily schedule a bit organized, maybe then I can allocate some time to update this poor bloggie of mine. But as for now, I have to get back to work - my online work. :)

Blogs, Blogs, Blogs

The following article is a paid post sponsored by Aaron Breslow.

I've been blogging for more than three years now. I've started blogging as a way to update my friends and family about our life overseas. Then, later I've learn to have a business through blog and also met a lot of fellow blogger friends. From then on, I've been interested to read other people's blogs as well. And just now I've read through the one of Aaron Breslow's blog. Aaron Breslow has a lot of other blogs and recently I've also visited his blog about baseball. He is actually a baseball player and also provides tips and information about baseball in that blog. This blog that I've come across now is a more personal blog in which he writes about his life, his likes, travels and the like. His latest post is about the Avatar Movie that already reached the $1 Billion mark. We haven't watched this movie yet but we've heard that this movie has superb sound, light and movie effects.

Anyways, if you're interested to learn more about Aaron Breslow and a more personal touch about his life, then you might want to visit one of his blogs.

Our New Year Celebration

We didn't have any celebration plans for our New Year since we haven't moved in to our new house yet. If only our house was already set, we could have hosted a New years party like the other year. But I believe that God had a plan and all things work together for good.

So, our family just went out for dinner for New years eve 'celebration' and spent some time in the mall. We then bought back a tub of ice cream to be eaten at 12 midnight as a closing of our New year's eve celebration. By the time we came back to the center it was already almost 11pm. So, we started our program by prayer and followed by the reading of Ecclesiastes 3. This was actually our text for the recent Sunday sermon and we thought of reviewing it and meditating on it more. After the first verse was read aloud by my Hubby, our li'l girl suddenly exclaimed, " I remember those words! That was the one read in the church!" Oh, she was actually listening to the Pastor's Tamil/English sermon and I thought she wasn't paying much attention that time. Anyways, after Hubby read the whole chapter, he gave a short explanation so that the kids will be able to understand it further.

Then, we proceeded with our mini testimony time where everyone of us took turns to thank God for the things that happened in 2009. Of course, when we asked who wants to talk first, our li'l boy excitedly volunteered," Me! Me! Me!". He gave his testimony which only he could understand but I heard he mentioned ' toy', so maybe he was thanking God for his toys :) . Tricia on the other hand, thanked God for all the trips that we have made as a family. While my Hubby and I gave a long list of our thanksgiving.

When it was time to pray, our li'l boy prayed again first followed by our li'l girl. We were specially touched by our li'l girls prayer. It went like this.. "Lord I pray that no bad things will happen to all the people, no floods, no earthquake.....no one will be killed... bless the people... " and she was crying when she prayed. When my Hubby prayed.. and when he prayed for her, the more she cried and cried. Our li'l boy on the other hand also joined in crying when he saw his older sister crying. While I was already teary eyed seeing the sincerity of my li'l girl praying and knowing that God must have touched her during prayer time. When I looked at my Hubby, he was also teary eyed and we all ended up crying and hugging each other and saying our "I love you's' for the rest of the remaining minutes before w. It was such a touching moment. A beautiful way to start our new year.

New Year , New Hope

Almost everyone is excited about the New Year. The New year somehow gives everyone a chance to start afresh and start anew. The year 2009 is now considered history and whatever the past has brought, it will just remain a memory.

The new year somehow gives everyone a new hope and a fresh beginning. But I guess this is not true for everyone. Many are still burdened by the past and are unable to move. Some people are still drowned with the many problems and challenges facing them. Just like for example those people who needs freedom from addiction and are seeking drug treatment through a drug rehab. While other people are in other kinds of addiction and need its respective addiction treatment.

But there is indeed ultimate Hope for everyone. This hope can't be found though people, through material things nor anything else . But this Hope can only be found in God. God has sent Jesus to die for us.. that through his death and resurrection we will find forgiveness.. that through his death and resurrection we will have hope and a future.

If only, we will be able to believe this then, the year 2010 will not be just another year that will pass without meaning. Only then, the coming year will be full of excitement and great expectation of the things that God can do in us and through us.