[smartads] We now have 142nd countries visiting the blog. Someone from Davao City is curious of how a Texan can live in the Philippines. I have the information on both these things inside.
http://www.cagayan-de-oro.com/legendseal.htm
We finally got another country that decided to take a chance and view my website. The name of the country is Benin. I never heard of this country, so I looked it up. It is a country in South Africa and it is just west of of Nigeria. I welcome any and all Beninese people to view the website. Here are a couple of links that will give you some information on this country. In case someone asks you about this country in the future, then you’ll know.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bn.html
http://s07.flagcounter.com/factbook/bj
- Cagayan de Oro Port
While I was taking notes for my post, someone came on the site looking for information on “if your texan how can you stay in t”. I guess they meant, The Philippines, but I’m not sure. I saw them come online and I wish I would have been able to contact them, but I have no way to do that. Maybe I should have left that chat thing on the site. I’m not sure it worked on every page though, maybe just the front page. It’s something to check into. I wish that whoever it was, would have left a message in the comment section. If it was the Philippines they were curious about, then I could have explained so many things to them. They got directed to the Marju Krisel Hotel and Resort comments for some reason, so I’m sure that wasn’t much help. Maybe they’ll see this post and leave the comment later. Here are a couple of links to Davao City, just because.
http://www.davaocity.gov.ph/davao/
- Cagayan de Oro night view
Useless Knowledge: The full name of Rhea Perlman’s award-winning character on TV’s Cheers was Carla Maria Victoria Angelina Teresa Apollonia Lozupone Tortelli LeBec. (Cheers to you Mrs. Perlman or Devito…whatever)
23 Jun – Since the Internet was down last night, no hit count. Sorry about that to all you that keep up with it. It was unavoidable, not like the last time if wasn’t there, when I just flat out forgot.
Right now on this boring day it is approaching noon. I had one thing happen right before noon and one right after that I usually put in the blog, so here they are. Right before noon I finished off the rest of my latest batch of stew. Yesterday when I made it, I made enough for 2 days instead of one and I’m glad I did because it turned out good and the good ones are always a pleasure to eat. Right after noon the wind starting picking up again, pretty heavy. It was blowing things and small child around. It was even harder than last night when I went to bed, but it stopped and restarted since then. It has been raining on and off all day. It rains hard for about 10-15 minutes, then slows down. It has done that several times already today. It’s not that bad though and it makes things nice and cool, so no one is complaining. It’s just standard weather when there is a tropical storm heading this way.
- Limunsudan Falls – close to Cagayan de Oro
I asked Titing if he’d like to write something to put in the blog. I told him in either English or Tagalog, but it has to be something to do with the Philippines, especially if it is about this area of Calbayog. He said he would, but he gets awful busy, so we’ll see. For him to write something concerning the Philippines should be easy. He’s lived here all his life and to the best of my knowledge has never left the Philippines for any reason. I told him that probably in 2013 we will be traveling to Europe and that if he wants to go he needs to start saving a little bit of money and getting the passport for both him and Neneng. He says he wants to, but saving the money could be difficult. He works so hard and deserves a break, so I hope we are able to find a way to get him over there for a week or even two weeks.
- Cagayan de Oro – City of Golden Friendship
http://www.expatify.com/philippines/monday-escape-cagayan-de-oro-philippines.html
Useless Knowledge: Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was once approached by the New York Giants to pitch for them; they had been excited by his pitching prowess during a tour in 1948. His signing bonus would have been $5,000. Had Castro been interested, history may have changed in a major (league) way, with the United States and Cuba playing on the same team! (Maybe no Cuban Missile Crisis and maybe Cuba would be part of the USA and we would not worried about all the illegals coming in from there, because they’d all be legals. Maybe..maybe..maybe)
If anyone out there wants to write something for the blog, English or Tagalog, please do so. It just has to be something about the Philippines and no porn or links to porn. I will personally check out all links. If it is porn or has a virus or even suspected of having a virus, it will not be used, but the rest of the article you send could still be added. Of course anything that comes to me in Tagalog will have to be read by someone that understands it before I will actually publish it. All articles that come in, in Tagalog will have their own section under the post/guest post page. I will add a section that says Tagalog, then further add a section for each person that sends a post in Tagalog. I already have a section for the ones in English. I’d appreciate something from someone to help promote the website. I’m still hoping for the day that someone actually asks me to put an advertisement on the blog and they’ll pay to do it. I figure more and better information will draw more readers and that in turn will draw in the advertisers.
- Whitewater Rafting – Cagayan de Oro
http://shareyourlovelifestoryatthisblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/tourist-spots-in-cagayan-de-oro/
I just change the tagline on the website again. All I did was take the first tagline and add it to the front of the second tagline, so now they are both on there. It took up exactly the amount of characters I had available for a tagline, so maybe it was meant to be.
That F-Secure link checker went away. I didn’t do anything special. It was there in the morning, but gone in the afternoon. I don’t know what happened, but I’m glad it’s gone. (It has since returned and I’m confused about it)
- Pearlmont Hotel Lobby, Cagayan de Oro City
http://www.philippinesdailyphotos.com/2009/07/pearlmont-hotel-lobby-cagayan-de-oro-city/
I talked with Emey outside for awhile. He had been drinking quite a bit of rhum, but he was curious of the living standards in the US versus the Philippines. He said that the standard in the US was higher. I assured him that it is set higher, but not everyone can or wants to achieve it. He said he was under the impression that Filipinos in the US were not cared about. That they would not be allowed to receive benefits at their job. I told him that as long as they were in the US legally, then they could receive the same benefits as others working a job. I also just had to mentioned that some illegals seemed to have more rights than even the natural born American citizen.
- Japanese Koi in a back yard pond – Cagayan de Oro
http://wn.com/Cagayan_de_Oro,_Philippines
(The above site has at least a dozen different videos about Cagayan de Oro)
- Saint Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral – Cagayan de Oro
- Cagayan de Oro city river
http://www.zamboanga.com/z/index.php?title=Cagayan_de_Oro_City%2C_Misamis_Oriental%2C_Philippines
(The above site is one of my favorite to find pictures about the Philippines. I think they have just about every city in the whole country covered)
- Sunset over Cagayan de Oro
http://www.mylot.com/w/photokeywords/cagayan+de+oro+city.aspx
Useless Knowledge: A covey of partridges; A muster or ostentation of peacocks; A nest, nide (nye), or bouquet of pheasants; A string of ponies; A pod of porpoises; A covey or bevy of quail; A nest of rabbits; An unkindness of ravens (an unkindness of Ravens? Again I wonder though why not just call them all the same thing. The animals couldn’t care less and it’d make it easier for everyone to remember)
Thank you for reading and be sure to tune in for tomorrow. It looks like it’s going to be a long post tomorrow.
Salamat, Palaam
Today in Philippines History
23 JUNE
1898 – Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy changes the form of government from Dictatorial to Revolutionary following the recent Declaration of Philippine Independence when most but not yet all of the provinces and cities have been liberated by the Filipino patriots during the second phase of the Revolution against Spain; President Aguinaldo, who has acted upon the advice of Apolinario Mabini y Maranan, his chief adviser, also issues a decree establishing a Revolutionary Committee abroad; unknown to Aguinaldo, who earlier forged an alliance with American Admiral George Dewey to fight Spain and subsequently apparently duped into stupidly thinking that the rising imperialist nation the United States of America is an ally, the two colonial countries are to later sign a peace protocol to halt Spanish-American War hostilities, thus ‘authorizing’ the Bald Eagle nation to occupy and hold the city, bay, and harbor of Manila pending the conclusion of a treaty set to define the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines; Spain and the U.S will stage the infamous Mock Battle of Manila to falsely show to the world that it is the Bald Eagle soldiers instead of the Filipinos who have defeated the Spaniards, sign the Treaty of Paris that will ridiculously and baselessly ‘cede’ the Philippines to the imperialist U.S. and by February 1899, the Philippine-American War (1899-1914) will commence.
Hi John,
I’ve been following your site for awhile…but I must confess I’ve been running up your country count. I travel for business…so this past year you have seen me in: Eindhoven and Amsterdam Netherlands, Tunisia, Siemianowice Poland, Cheska Lipa Czech Republic, LeFerte Bernand and Creutzwals France, Telford England, DasMarinas Cavite, Boracay, Weisbaden Germany, Bangalore India, Penang and KL Malaysia, Thailand, Eygpt (can’t remember if I logged on there), Dubai, China…and perhaps a few other places that escape my memory now. I currently live in Molino Dasmarinas Cavite.
I’m in Eindhoven Netherlands now, but looking forward to returning to the Philippines later this week. I’m a southern boy born and raised in Atlanta Georgia. I hope we get a chance to meet sometime.
Joe
Hi Joe. I get called your name a lot around here. Guess it doesn’t bother you to hear “Hey Joe” all the time.
Wow, you sure do travel a lot, but that good for me. That runs up the country count and I’m trying to collect all of them, so keep traveling.
I always wanted a job that I could travel with, but that seems a bit much for a married man in one year. About half that would be okay though.
I’m glad you took the time (and had the time) to leave a comment for me. I’m really trying to improve this website the best way I know how and getting readers to interact with each other is one of the ways I think will work, but just leaving comments is wonderful too.
I have traveled to Atlanta twice in my life, once only to the airport on my way to Robbins AFB, the other time to visit a friend, who I think still lives there.
I’ll be looking forward to meeting you someday.
John. Been following yours, bobs, phils and daves blogs for a while now. lots of interesting and usefull information. Thanks.
I have noticed your reference to “hit counts” lately. I hope I am not screwing you up. I leave all your blogs up and just hit refresh to check for updates. Will it be more benificial for you if I log into it daily?
Well thank you Scott. That’s some pretty elite company you’ve got me running with there. Your welcome for the information. If you need or want anything in particular, just let me know, I’ll see what I can do.
No, it’s fine. You do what you need to do. I guess logging out and back in would give me another hit, but if it’s not good for you, it doesn’t bother me. I’m just glad that you follow and evidently like the blog. Hope to hear more from you with other comments soon. Are you interested in the Philippines for retirement purposes?
Yes, I will be retiring Fall of 2012 from the Army. (unless i can convince the Asawa to let me leave earlier lol). We will move to Barangay San Dionisio, Paranaque in Metro M. She has inherited the family home which we will tear down and build a new house. We visit almost every year for a couple of weeks and have fell in love with the people, culture and the country. I know I know its metro manila, but one of the attractions for me, every time i turn a corner its a new experience. If it gets to hot or we just get to fed up with the city we plan to run south to Tagayaty or Laguna for a week or two. Naturally we will play tourist once the house is completed, with so many islands and sub cultures there I am sure it will be years before we even thing about touristing further afield.
Metro Manila, yeah that’s a crowded place. Many expats live there and love it, but it’s not for me. You’ve been there and you say you like it, so go for it. Too many typhoons hit that area and the drainage system really sucks. I hope you are building a solid weatherproof house, if couldn’t hurt and you might need it someday.
If you want to see all the Philippines, it’ll take quite awhile. For us, we like the idea of having to leave once a year for our bilikbayan status. We could travel all around here whenever we want, but for about a week we like to visit other countries in the Pacific area, and probably Europe in 2013 for a couple of weeks. I really want to see Venice and Lita wants to see Paris. We ain’t getting any younger either.
I hear ya, We are very fortunate to own property on a slight rise. During that last big Typoon that drowned Manila our house stayed dry. We plan to build a two story cinder block house. (Naturally she has a second cousin who is an architect, lol). With just enought room for me to plant my tropical rain forest to sit and read in. (being born and raised in SoCal i love rain and green things. Room for a grill so i can learn to cook using native ingredients. (like your stews? lol). Another reason i love our area is we live in the Bayan (oldtown?) of our city. With an open air market with fresh produce, fish, meat etc) and if we miss civilization Sucat SM is only like 2 miles away and Mall of Asia is a short car trip. (just typing about it makes me want to drop my papers right now)
Sounds like y’all have been doing some planning already. She has a first cousin that has a PhD in Engineering (Mar) and he is the one the oversaw the construction of our house, or at least until I ran out of money. We had to come a year earlier than planned and the money ran out on me, but the house is still good, just incomplete for now. I’m not much of a native food eater, my stew consistent of only things I’m familiar with, I just can’t bring my mind to make my mouth eat strange things. The Bayan does sound nice, I like things like that too. I have to travel 4 hours to get to a mall, until they build the one here in Bagacay, then I will only have to ‘walk’ for about 2 minutes. Drop those papers, but you have to talk your wife into it first. When I retired, back in 1993, I got that early retirement package and my wife wanted to take the lump sum deal of about $43,000 and BX/PX and Commissary privileges for 2 years. After that nothing. I did just the opposite of what she said and took the regular retirement of 42% of my pay and all the privileges for life. She has told me a couple of times since then, that she’s glad I did it my way.
No I can retire anytime i want, (23 plus years) She is a federal employee, the DREADED TSA. She has another 17 month or so until her 10 year mark, at which time whe will recieve a small stipend at age 60. You know how wives are about having their “own” money. Not like they cant have all of ours anytime they want lol.
Yep, so I guess my wife is not the only one. I guess 17 months is not really that long in the whole scheme of things, but if sounds like a long time when you’re ready to go.
So Scott where exactly are you moving to. Is it in Samar or in Metro Manila? Seems like you are pretty firm on this place, but I seem to remember something about you moving here to Samar also. Am I mistaken in thinking that? Just checking and if it is Samar, where?
John, you left out a gaggle of geese and a murder of crows. That last one never made sense to me.
Wish you had a way to send some of that rain here in a balikbayon box. We sure do need it. Lots of wild fires here in Florida. I understand that Texas and Arizona are being hit pretty hard with fires, too.
And I did not know that trivia about Castro. Kinda makes one wonder.
I think that the last time I had those things on Useless Knowledge the gaggle of geese and murder of crows were on there. I can’t remember for sure though.
I wish I could send you a few days worth of rain. We have so much around here, we don’t need it all.
Yeah Castro in MLB does make you stop and think, What if…?
Oh I found this at: http://www.word-detective.com/2009/02/22/murder-of-crows-etc/
As for why we call a group of crows a “murder,” the inspiration for the term is a mystery, lost since the 15th century. As the Oxford English Dictionary suggests, “murder” may “perhaps [allude] to the crow’s traditional association with violent death, or … to its harsh and raucous cry.” Then again, since crows have recently been demonstrated to be capable of advanced reasoning and even tool-making, maybe they actually did plot a few murders back in the 15th century.