Wednesday 17 Nov

[smartads] I thought that today I’d put a little quiz on here about the Philippines.  Now I’m sure that most of y’all will have no clue what the answers are, but some of y’all might now most of them.    Anyway, I’ll put the questions here and I’ll have the answers at the bottom of the post instead of the trivia today.  I don’t know all the answers either, because I haven’t looked yet.  I just found the questions and answers to post.

Quiz Questions

1. Which Filipino boxer is known for his nickname “Pac-Man”

2. Who said this immortal words “A Filipino is worth dying for” ?

3. What is the color of the 1,000 peso bill?

4. What is the national flower of the Philippines?

5. What is a fertilized duck egg called?

6. What is the title of the Philippine National Anthem?

7. What is the meaning of the acronym NAMFREL?

8. What is the original name of Luneta Park?

9. Which Philippine president has an initial of MLQ?

10. What are the provinces that consist the acronym CALABARZON  (Name them)

    I was up and running (not physically) this morning at 0815.  I had woken up earlier, but couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed and ended up falling back asleep.  I woke up when I heard Anna Pearl yelling something to someone right outside my bedroom window.  We hear a lot of the noise by our bedroom window.  That is one of the main reasons why we wish we had enough money to finish the upstairs so we’ll be away from all that noise.  Our bedroom upstairs is suppose to be on the opposite side of the house too, so that will really cut down on the noise a lot.  Mar said that we could finish upstairs for about $6000 if we wanted to, but it wouldn’t be concrete, and I want the concrete to be sure we have a rock solid house.  To complete it the way I want, will cost at least 3 times that.  Most of the cost going to concrete.  If anyone out there has any extra money they are not doing anything with, and would like to donate, it’d be okay with me.  Just kidding people.  I need to take up space today because I think I’m low on material again.

    

    

    The BBQ yesterday yielded us P1130.  Tonight we had P1100.  Not really making a killing, but it only cost P1200 for the stuff we bought to make that much, and we still have a little of it left.  So we are making a little over double what we have to payout.  I averaged it up and after buying the food, supplies, filtering in about how much propane we use and paying Vicky and Lynn’s salaries, we usually make between $200-$225 per month clear.  Like I said not a killing, but that amount is pretty helpful here.  Once LolyKat gets open, it should increase and once the hotel starts getting business, it should increase even more.  We’re going to be shooting for $1000 per month, but probably $600-$700 is more realistic, at least for now.  When/If we ever hit $1000, then we will raise our goal to $1500 and $500 more each time when/if we hit the new goal.  Dreaming is free, and at least we have a bit of a say in this dream.

    Tagalog word of the day:  daliri  (da-lee-ree)  means finger.  No confirmation of this, just from dictionary, but I believe it is right.

    I was wondering if everyone remembers how they find this site?  If you do would you let me know, I’d like to know.

    

    

    I’ve activated a new plug-in for this blog.  It is called Outbrain.  It tells me how many hits I get at each post, picture, page, link…whatever…everything.  It also tracks the ratings, you know the star rating I added at the end of each post.  So if you don’t mind could you please start rating that.  I ask, because I can see what kind of things y’all like to read and don’t like to read.  I will be able to tell if a post is boring or if it was something that you really enjoyed.  The only way to tell before was with comments, and I don’t always get comments.  Please continue to comment though, if you want.  I want you to do both, but if you don’t have the time to leave a comment, just rate the post right quick.  It would be helpful to me.

    I’ve been thinking about adding a login/register place for this blog.  Is there something that y’all see that asks you to register now?  I don’t see it on mine.  I tried to put that login/register thing in earlier but decided I better mention it first before putting it in.  For the short time I did have it in, I didn’t see it anywhere.  So when I put it in, probably next week, would someone out there let me know if it is actually there?  If not, then I’ll try to figure out what the problem is.  If I can’t figure it out, well maybe I’ll just forget the whole thing.  I heard that one of the things that sponsors look for is how many people register for your site.  I think I need all the help I can get on getting a sponsor to my blog, so I’m trying whatever I hear.

    It was another boring day in paradise.  It did rain again.  Really and truly I think that since summer was over, back in June, it has rained at least 90% of the days since.  I don’t mind it so much unless it rains while the BBQ is open, then I don’t like it much at all.

    Y’all are probably not too interested in the Top Blog ratings, or are you?  I will keep putting them in unless I get a lot of people that tell me they are not interested in them.  So having that said, for this morning we were 424 of 1463 (28.9%) Personal and 2123 of 6348 (33.4%) Overall.  At he moment we are at 424 of 1463 (28.9%) and 2123 of 6348 (33.4%).  In the last 24 hours we have had only 550 hits.  That’s slightly less than 23 hits per hour.

    

    

    My first visit to the Philippines was in May 1984.  The only places I went were Angeles City, Clark AB (which was right next to Angeles), Manila and Bagiuo City.  We were married just over 4 years and stationed at Kadena AB Japan (our first tour there).  I wanted to visit my father-in-law (Tatay) because he had never seen me, nor I him, except in pictures.  They didn’t want me to go down to the province at that time because there was too much guerrilla activity going on down in that area at the time.  So Tatay, Benito and his daughter Minerva came up to Angeles.  We stayed in a hotel right outside Friendship Gate.  I only really remember 3 things about being there.  1) I saw a lot of army personnel carrying M-16’s around in the street.  I remember that because I’ve never seen people carry guns so open (and I’m from Texas).  2) There was this guy selling caps and he had, at least, 30 caps stacked on top of his head.  I still have 1 of the 2 caps I bought.  The statement on the cap says, “Balut..The Egg with Legs”.  If you know what a balut is, then it’s kind of funny.  3) I wanted to learn a little bit of Tagalog, so Minerva (8 years old at the time) was teaching me by using comic books.  She’d read a frame to me and I’d try to follow then repeat what she said.  She had many good laughs at my attempts.

    After Angeles we went to Manila for a day.  I went to a big church there and also to Rizal Park.  I have a picture of myself and Tatay in front of Jose Rizal’s statue.  I didn’t really know a dang thing about where I was or were I was going.  I do remember that at one time we passed not too far from some students demonstrating against America.  I kept my head down as I went through that area, just to be safe.

    

    

    We went back to Angeles, stayed in the same hotel for a night, then went to Bagiuo City the next day.  It was just Lita and I that went to Bagiuo because Tatay had to get back to harvest his rice fields.  Tatay and I both made a good impression on each other.  We left from the NCO Club on Clark AB in a blue military bus.  I swear that the guy that was driving must have been a rabbit bus driver before he got this job.  He drove like a mad man.  Everyone was still talking and having a good time though.  The only time that no one talked was when we were going up the mountain close to Bagiuo.  The roads there have a tremendous drop off.  I’m talking about hundreds of feet.  It was a very quiet bus during our whole trip up the side of that mountain, and coming down.  At the time, there were no side rails either.  It was really scary when a bus came in the other direction.  We stayed in Bagiuo at Camp John Hay.  It is, or rather, was, a recreation area for the US military.  We got a little cottage, with a fire place because it is cold up there most of the year at night time.  The water pressure at the little cottage was so wonderful that I didn’t want to get out of the shower.  When I finally did get out, I was all wrinkled.  There was a restaurant there called Lone Star Steak House.  We went there to eat, and I, being a wise cracker, asked if they had Lone Star beer there.  To my surprise, they did.  Now I don’t normally drink Lone Star, but if it’s in a bottle it’s okay.  This one was in a bottle, so I got one.  We both had steaks to eat.  I’m not much of a golfer, I’m more like a goofer, but I did go one round on their 9 hole golf course there.  I believe hole #3  was/is (I think it’s still there) called Cardiac hill.  When you hit that ball off the tee, it goes almost straight up.  If you don’t hit it hard enough, it will roll all the way back down, and I do mean ALL the way.  Even though I am only a goofer, it only took me 2 tries to get it over the top.  I don’t remember my final score or anything, but I do remember that I had fun.  We sure hated to leave when it was time to go.  There that was our first trip to the Philippines.  The only other thing I can tell you is that we rode a HOP, that’s a military plane, to get there and it only cost us $20 each for a round trip from Okinawa and back.  HOPs started being free to fly sometime after that.

    Quiz Answers
    
    

1. Manny Pacquiao
2. Ninoy Aquino
3. Blue
4. Sampaguita
5. Balut
6. Lupang Hinirang
7. NAMFREL – National Citizen’s Movement for free Elections
8. Bagumbayan
9. Manuel L. Quezon
10. Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon

Well that’s all I have for today.  Thanks again everyone for reading.  If you know anyone else that may be interested in reading this blog, let them know, I won’t complain.  Please try to remember to do the ratings and to leave comments.  Also remember if you need for me to check anything out for you here, let me know and I’ll do what I can.

Keith, I looked for movies but it’s hard to find the newer ones.  They’re cracking down on pirating these days.  I still think your best bet is to go through TFC.  The movies there would be new, not pirated, and it would end up costing you less also.

Salamat, Palaam