Should Husbands Help with the Household Chores?
Jena Isle | February 7, 2010 | 11:26 am

I oftentimes see a husband come from work, plop a pillow by the TV, and watch while the woman cooks, tends to the children, and sets the table.  I agree that women by nature are more domesticated (Do I hear a violent reaction, from Holly?) He he he) But the problem is, both of them came from work and both of them are tired, so why is the husband not helping with the household chores?  (Thank God, hubby is not like that…lol…it’s the opposite for me. He is the chef; I do the small side chores.)

man washing dishes

Photo by russelljsmith

But there are countless men, and I don’t mean locally only, who think the home is the turf of the woman and they seem reluctant to help with the household chores. A study conducted by Oxford University showed that many men are still not egalitarians..

Husbands should do housework simply because they should love their wives not only in words but also in action. One way of showing how much they love their wives is by doing housework without any prodding.

Aside from this compelling reason, here are more reasons why husbands should do housework:

1. They are the physically stronger sex so they should do housework! Housework, like washing clothes, vacuuming are physically demanding chores, so it’s only appropriate that husbands help because they are stronger and have more stamina.

2. Most wives nowadays are also career women. They work for a living and therefore share with whatever bills that are to be paid; the household chores therefore should also be shared because the wife comes home tired and needs all the rest she can get.

3. If the wife is not a career woman, taking care of the children alone is a daunting task that needs the cooperation and the helping hand of the husband. You could just imagine the wife getting up several times during the night to feed the baby and then getting up early again to feed the husband who will be going off to work. Only superwoman could stay awake almost all night long and be able to wake up early, day in and day out.

4. The husband should do housework so he’ll know how difficult a wife’s role is and would understand why sometimes a wife is so tired that she could not “cooperate” in the romantic overtures of the husband in bed.

5.  The wife cannot do all the household work.  This is because of so much to do and so little time. If the husband wants everything done in a day, then he has to chip in.

6. Housework is a form of exercise. Husbands who don’t have the time to exercise can adapt these methods and help the wife simultaneously as he exercises; two birds with one stone!

7. Sometimes, housework needs the expertise of a man, and who would be a better helper than the husband? Surely, the wife cannot call in the neighbors to replace a busted bulb, to paint the kitchen door, to attach bolts to a bedpost, etc. Only the husband can conscientiously do all these things, without cost. If couples want to save money, then the husband has to help in the housework.

Mentioned in the first paragraph, however, is the most important reason. A husband should do housework simply because he loves his wife and is willing to help her in all ways that he can.

They did it for love, they got married for love, and now they should work together in love.  Now, that’s true love for me.

What do you think, ladies , should your husbands help you with the chores?

And husbands,  are you willing to help your wives?

Photo by russelljsmith

Travel Destination: Angeles City
Jena Isle | January 23, 2010 | 1:54 pm

Angeles City mirrors two distinct images: that of the beauty of nature, and that of the glitter and glamor of city life. If you are bound for the Philippines, then you should visit  the City of the Angels.

Location:

The city is located in Region III, north of Manila / NCR (National Capitol Region), Philippines. It is about 55 miles from the Capital.

Access:

From the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), one can take an airport taxi to nearby bus stations (Victory Liner, Rabbit, Dagupan Bus lines most buses going up north pass by Dau the entry point to Angeles City.) The Victory Liner is the most comfortable, based on the author’s experience. Only the Rabbit Bus lines however, has a station inside the city. For the other buses, you could alight at Dau, which is a jeepney – ride away from Angeles. There are ordinary buses and air con buses, which offer affordable prices.

You could rent private cars and taxis from the airport that could bring you directly to Angeles, but it would be more expensive than the bus fares.

If you decide to take the bus until Dau, then you could ride a jeepney from Dau to Angeles. You have to walk though, the short distance from the bus station to the jeepney stop. If you are totally new to the city, take a ride from the NAIA Airport provided by legitimate and certified airport taxis.

The Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) is inside Clark Freeport, (which was previously the US Clark Air Base.) Travelers from different entry points could now land directly at the airport. Flights from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Incheon Korea, Singapore, Hongkong and Thailand are quite affordable.

For first time-travelers, it is not advisable to hail a taxi outside of the airport for these are no longer covered by airport rules and may not be guaranteed for your personal safety. Accidents can happen in any part of the world no matter what safety precautions are in place if you don’t travel wisely. One could easily be lost in the crowded, metropolitan mazes.

Within Angeles city, jeepneys and tricycles are readily available.

Recommended places to visit:

If you’re a nature enthusiast, the remains of Mt. Pinatubo would be a good place to go. The remains of the eruption in 1991 are still indelibly etched on the landscape. The oldest house-Pamintuan’s residence found at Sto. Rosario St. could be a treat for you. The intricate designs of the house reflect the influence of the Spanish occupation. The Clark Special

The Beauty After the Onslaught - Mt. Pinatubo, photo by lacesdews

The Beauty After the Onslaught - Mt. Pinatubo, photo by lacesdews

Economic Zone could be a peaceful place to visit, just to see how the former – US Clark Air Base – looked like. It occupies a large area in the outskirt of the city. There are also several duty-free shops . Taxis can be hired at the gates of Clark or at taxi stops outside SM Clark ( a leading Filipino Mall, found just near the gates of Clark).

Several popular hotels are also within Clark’s perimeter: Mimosa and Holiday Inn to name some. Mount Arayat stands majestic in the center of Pampanga and is less than an hour’s ride from the city proper. It is the only mountain found in the heart of the province.

Mother Nature abounds and local folks usually spent some respite there during the summer months. A guided tour would be advisable if you want to include it in your list.

The museums, churches and old Spanish houses are worth a visit too.

It would be wise not to venture without a competent, local guide. Balibago – one ride from the city proper – is where most tourists stay. There are several hotels in this area, Swagman, Oasis , and many more.  These are frequented by tourists from different nationalities.  Night life is also spectacular.

There are several bars and bistros (some are opened 24 hours), which cater to foreigners who prefer the night life.

Whatever places you decide to visit while in Angeles City, you should be a wise traveler. Always have a map of the city with you, bring only valuables that you need when going out. For maximum enjoyment, stay in groups and employ  the services of legitimate local guides.

What You Must Know About Computer Specifications
Jena Isle | January 17, 2010 | 5:37 pm

By: Nikes Alviz

Have you ever experienced buying a computer and drawing a blank, when the salesman asked you, what computer specifications did you like? You had this big question mark in your mind of what he was talking about.

Was there an incident when you were trying to buy a certain software or game, and you were perplexed upon reading the label which said, “Minimum System Requirements”?  You end up, therefore, buying nothing at all simply because you didn’t understand computer language.

If your answer is “yes” to any of these questions, well you are in the right page. Keep reading, and this article will help enlighten and feed you healthy information, so that next time you are in the above situation, you will not feel inferior when it comes to tech talk in computers.  Courtesy of Nikes Alviz

What is a computer system specification?

A computer system is a collection of devices each with their own functions, that works together as one in order to process information and display it on your monitor. It lets you do so many things like browse the internet, edit your worksheet, type a letter using a word processor, watch movies, play games, edit photos or videos, and even program a software to do a specific function. Each device contributes to the overall performance of a computer system.

A computer specification is a collection of information of all these important devices in a computer system. These are very useful because just by looking at these information, the user can roughly estimate a computer system’s performance. This is why software and games include in their label the “minimum system requirements” in order for the buyer or user to be able to estimate if his/her computer system can actually run the software or game and how efficiently will it run.

This is also important when you are trying to buy a new computer unit because these information will be your basis on what computer devices will you be giving priority in accordance to your desired main functionality of your computer system.

For example, if your computer is mainly for browsing and daily computing only, you may want to buy mid range processor, hard drive and medium amount of RAM.

But if your computer system will be mainly for gaming, you may want to invest on video cards, high RAM and fast processor. Therefore, proper basic knowledge on computer devices or specifications will greatly help any computer user especially those who are new in the field of computers.

Here are brief descriptions of each device usually included in computer system specifications:

  1. CPU – Central Processing Unit or simply processor.

This is the brain of a computer unit.

This is the device that process every bit of information you give the computer.

In a computer specification, it is usually written like this, “Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.8ghz”.

The first label is the model name or brand name of the processor.

The 2nd part is the important information you need. This number indicates a processor “clock speed”.

A clock speed is the frequency on how fast the processor executes commands or process information in a given time. Therefore, the higher the clock speed, the faster the processor, the better.

But also take note on the number of cores a processor have. Early processors only contain a single die or core in order to process data, but modern processors usually contain 2 or 4 dies or cores which simultaneously work together for a faster data processing.

Theoretically, the higher the core count, the better, but this is not usually applies for all. Some software or games only support 2 cores therefore a quad-core (4 cores) will not benefit on this.

But if you are into video and photo editing where there are a number of calculations needed at a single time, a quad-core processor will be faster than a dual core. Therefore, the benefit gained on multiple core processors largely depends on the software or game to be used.

2.  RAM- Random Access Memory.

This is a memory module where bits of information to be processed are stored temporarily and randomly accessed by the processor for loading.

The main difference of a RAM from a memory card or hard drive or ROM (read-only memory) is that the information stored inside a RAM is deleted once the computer is turned off unlike other memory modules where data stored inside is retained even after turning off the computer.

Basically, the higher the capacity of the RAM (usually in MB (megabytes) or GB (Gigabytes)), the better and faster the computer responds to processes and user inputs. This is because the higher the memory capacity, the more information can be loaded in the memory at once therefore less time the processor seeks for these information and the faster it will execute a certain task.

A computer with at least 1gb of RAM for Windows Vista and Seven Operating system is usually sufficient for fast and efficient computing. But a RAM of 2gb or more is recommended for gaming and high priority software (video editing) purposes is recommended since these require a lot of tasks and instructions loaded at a single time.

3.  Graphics Card/Video Card

This device processes all the information related to the graphics the computer will display. Without this, you will not see anything displayed on your monitor. There are 2 kinds of video processors, the onboard graphics accelerator and the “graphics card”.

The onboard graphics accelerator is kind of graphics processor which is already embedded on the motherboard. This usually provides medium resolution and mediocre 3D performance.

If the computer is for internet browsing and daily computing, the onboard graphics is sufficient enough to provide your graphical needs. A very example of this is the graphics accelerator of laptops.

The 2nd type of graphics accelerator is the “graphics card”. It is called as such since the whole graphics processor is in a separate card win which it is connected to a motherboard through a bus.

Old computers uses AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) bus slots which are already phased out of production. Modern computers uses PCIE (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) bus which is a lot faster than the traditional AGP to connect modern video cards to the motherboard.

The graphics card has a separate memory module in which it acts like a RAM but only loads graphic related data for processing. Although basically the higher the memory the better, this is not always the case.

Most users mistakenly think that this is the most important information a graphics card have. They think that the higher the memory, the faster the card process the graphics, and therefore the better the quality the graphics is rendered. This is wrong. The memory capacity of a graphics card is only important when determining the maximum resolution a graphic data will be displayed.

The higher the resolution, the higher the memory requirement. Therefore, a 512mb video card in 1280×1024 resolution is sufficient enough to provide the graphics needed. A 2gb video card in a 1920×1080 resolution is pretty much an overkill. What is important in determining the quality of the graphics rendered is the card’s ability to render the graphics and its Clock and Memory Speed. Courtesy of Nikes Alviz

The higher the Clock and Memory Speeds, the better the video card’s performance. So when choosing for a card for gaming, consider checking its clock and memory bus speeds and rendering capability rather than its onboard video memory.

4.  Hard Drive – also known as Hard Disk Drive.

This is the device where all information for long term storage are saved. Basically, the higher the capacity of the hard drive the more data could be saved, the better. Most hard drives now have capacities of 160gb, 320gb, 500gb and even 1TB (terabytes or 1000 gb) of memory.

This choice is mostly dependent on user preference. A hard drive of 320gb is more than sufficient in daily computing.

5.  DVD-ROM

This device reads all optical media you use for data storage which include CD and DVD. This is a Read Only Memory, therefore information stored in these media can only be “read” and cannot be altered.

This drive is useful because it is the primary drive used when software discs are to be installed or video files (DVD movies) are to be viewed.

6.  Operating System (OS)

This is the software which controls everything the computer does. Without an operating system, the computer system is unusable. Basically, the better the operating system, the better performance your computer system will be.

Operating system is user dependent and preference but operating system recommended are Windows XP and Windows 7 which are very good, secured, and are stable.

Well basically, these are the most important information included in a computer specification but other information which is not usually included are also important and are usually ignored.

For additional information, these are the following:

  1. Power Supply Unit

It is also known as PSU. This device is where the whole computer unit gets its juice. Usually its unit is Watts, which is the amount of power it could provide at its maximum capacity. So the more computer parts installed in a computer system, the more power it needs to run.

Therefore the higher the wattage, the more parts you can install (e.g. 2 video cards simultaneously working, or 5 hard drives in one computer), the better. But beware, the higher the wattage, the higher it consumes electricity, therefore the higher the electric bill will cost.

2. Motherboard

This is where all the computer parts are interconnected and communicates with each other. Basically, the better the features of a motherboard (e.g. more memory slots, quality capacitors, heavy duty resistors, better cooling, etc) the better. This is where also the sound chip is installed in order to process sound in your computer.

These are only a few but some of the most important information in a computer system. These data termed as Computer Specifications will help the buyer or user determine the type of computer he wants and will fit his/her usage style. With some basic knowledge of these, you have the advantage in choosing your computer system with its best performance that will suit your computing needs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nikes Alviz

Nikes Alviz  is an allied health professional, who is knowledgeable in computers because of experience.  I have been a witness to how he could “repair” a lap top or computer  that other technicians were not able to restore. I can say then , that he’s a computer expert.

Starting this week, I’ll be featuring his  weekly pointers, tips, information and articles about computers. And mind you Naruto is next on the list. lol.

Thanks Sir Nikes, for agreeing to be a weekly guest writer. Kudos to you!