Pangasinan – Land of Salt – Brown Out Grace

[smartads] Okay I know I’m a little later than normal on this post and there is little excuse, but there is some excuse.  I tried a little different format this time so if you like it better let me know.  If you don’t let me know.  If you don’t care, then don’t bother saying a thing about it unless you get an urge to do so.  On the other hand, this turned out to be my longest post ever.

Pangasinan is a province of the Republic of the Philippines. The provincial capital is Lingayen. Pangasinan is located on the west central and peripheral area of the island of Luzon along the Lingayen Gulf, with the total land area being 5,368.82 square kilometers (3336.030 sq mi). According to the latest census, it has a population of 2,645,395 people in 477,819 households. The total population is projected to rise to 3,039,500 in 2010. According to the 2007 Philippine general elections, Pangasinan has a voting population of 1,360,807, which is the second highest in the Philippines.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=68314591

The name Pangasinan means “land of salt” or “place of salt-making”; it is derived from the words Pang, meaning for and asin, meaning “salt”, or For Salt in the Pangasinan language and other related languages. The province is a major producer of salt in the Philippines. Dagupan City is known for its Bangus festival named after the fish they widely produce and made the city famous.

An ancient kingdom called Luyag na Kaboloan existed in Pangasinan before the Spanish conquest that began in the 15th century. The maritime trade network that once flourished in ancient Southeast Asia connected Pangasinan with other peoples of Southeast Asia, India, China, and the Pacific.

Pangasinan occupies a strategic geo-political position in the central plain of Luzon, known as the rice granary of the Philippines. Pangasinan has been described as a gateway to northern Luzon and as the heartland of the Philippines.

http://www.rosalescity.com/2009/02/presidencia-mini-park.html

26 Oct hits @ 0000 = 1473828 = 6954

27 Oct hits @ 0000 = 1481830 = 8002

28 Oct hits @ 11:00pm =1496870 = 15040 (2 days)

Site Added:  To “Other Expat Sites” =  “Retiring Philippines.org“.  I found this site because the owner of the site visited my site and left me a comment with his site name on it, so I went to check his out.  It turned out that it was pretty informative so I thought I’d give everyone on here a chance to view it.  I have noticed a couple of people that have been there.  I hope many others will do so.

http://www.backpackingphilippines.com/2009/03/el-puerto-marina-beach-resort-lingayen.html

Recent Brownouts: On Wednesday, the 26th, we had a short brown out from 1204 to 1231.  It was just enough to be an inconvenience, especially since it went out in the middle of one of my few shows that I like to watch here.  Of course it was one that I have not seen before, so I had to wait and watch the rerun in the early morning hours.

The next day, the 27th, we had a much longer brown out.  In fact it was one of the all nighters.  It started at 7:19pm and lasted until 0653 the next morning.  Well all except for about an hour shortly after the brown out started, but when the power was on then it was only running with about a quarter of it’s strength.  Lita and I were standing out by the road talking when it finally went out, so I didn’t get the exact time, but I’m figuring about an hour.   For that hour we at least had fans and lights, although the fans didn’t produce much wind, at least it was better than nothing.

http://www.zamboanga.com/z/index.php?title=Asingan,_Pangasinan,_Philippines

Emei: He is still moving to Manila, probably on either Monday or Tuesday the last I heard.  I did talk to him some more about that and he did say that he does plan to try to find a job there.  He has worked there before so he knows the city and the goings on there.  He also said that he plans to stay with a nephew for awhile when he gets there until he can find his own place to stay.  I’m going to miss Emei when he goes.

Also Emei had another experience that I’m sure he will not forget for awhile.  It seems that Calbayog also has a no smoking in public buildings policy.  I didn’t know that, but Emei knows.  Evidently he had been warned in the past about not doing it, but he did anyway.  The fine for this is P200.  I don’t know if that is only for a first offense or not though.  Emei says he won’t be doing that again, so I suppose the fine served its purpose.

http://www.philamfood.com/blog/pangasinan/

Grace:  She stopped by today, but I don’t know why.  I woke up from a nap to find her sitting at the picnic table out front, looking like the beautiful young lady she is.  She did forget to do the mano po though.  That’s only the 2nd or 3rd time she has ever forgot.  We talked for a little bit but I never asked her why she was there and she never said.  I did ask her if she still planned on going to Tambis with Lita on Monday or Tuesday, whenever it is, and she said yes.  She also reconfirmed that the price for a round trip is P1000 per person.  In case I never mentioned it or in case someone reading this didn’t read it, if I did, Grace is one of the people in the world that I would fight an army to protect, her and her sister (Juvic).  Well heck, just about any of the ladies here, young and ‘older’, I would stand up for. Juvic and Grace I have known since they were 9 and 7, respectively, and they are pretty much like my children.

Famous Quotes:  “Many people want the Government to protect the Consumer.  A much more urgent problem is to protect the Consumer from the Government”.  — Milton Friedman

http://www.paraisophilippines.com/category/philippine-provinces/pangasinan/

Rick Smith:   Rick is one of the readers of this blog and a new friend of mine.  I have been talking with Rick quite a bit on Facebook and Messenger lately.  He has sent me several links to read and I think I’ve posted most, if not all, of them on the blog for y’all to read.  Rick pointed out to me that when the Guest Post names is expanded, it was blocked by my Amazon books ad.  That is one of the adjustments I have recently made to the site.  I moved the Amazon ad down and now all the Guests post names can be seen.

On Thursday, Rick was heading to Tacloban and he asked me if I needed anything.  I said no at first, but then he mentioned that he could get some Kraft sliced American cheese.  I wanted that.  Then he mentioned about some Hungarian sausage that he gets there that he thinks tastes pretty good, so I asked for a few links of that.  I also decided, since he was there anyway, to ask for some of the Underwood Chicken Spread.  Well he couldn’t find any of that, but he did, in addition to getting the cheese and the sausage, get me a small (like personal size) ham and a package of Oreo cookies, which I don’t even remember talking about (but may have).  Oreo’s are my favorite store bought cookies.  I like Oatmeal Raisin in the homemade cookie department.

http://www.rosalescity.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

The plan was for him to stop by here on the way home, if it wasn’t too late, but that didn’t work out.  His wife, Flor, unfortunately got a little sick while they were gone and he decided to get her home instead.  That’s fine though, I know that I would have done the same thing had it been Lita.  It wasn’t going to kill me to go another night without things that I had not had since I’ve been here (I didn’t know about the Oreo’s at the time because I have had them).  The next day Jay and I went to his house to pick the things up.  Their apartment was the first house, that didn’t belong to a relative, that I have been in, in Calbayog.  At least I don’t remember another one, unless you count the house of the dentist I went to, but I never actually went inside his house, just to the patio outside.  That was a while back when I had a bad tooth ache.  Heck I think that was before I even started doing a blog.

Anyway, it turns out that the Hungarian sausage is pretty good.  I know I’ve mentioned on here several times that I am a picky eater, despite being 260 pounds, and I liked this sausage.  The ham was good too, but it was definitely a sweet ham.  The box of Oreo’s he bought had to sealed packages in it.  I say ‘had’ because 1 of those is gone now.  Of course I will be paying Rick back for this stuff, but I’m glad he was kind enough to pick them up for me until my check arrives.

http://pangasinan.islandsphilippines.com/

Vicky:  She almost made a mistake today that I should have let her make and had the video camera out to record it.  We let her, Sally and Jay taste some of the cheese that Rick bought for me.  Well evidently Vicky and her family are not big cheese eaters because she thought that she had to cook the cheese before she eats it.  It probably would not have been as funny as the video I also missed, A Corny Popping Story, but it probably still would have been worth a laugh or two.  Just the facial expressions could have been funny enough.

Useless Knowledge:   The Ant has the largest brain in the animal kingdom, in proportion to its size.   An ant can lift 50 times its own weight, which is equivalent to a human being  pulling a 10-ton trailer.

A projected view of the new Prince Mall that is scheduled to be built here in Calbayog on Magsaysay Blvd.  I will get downtown early next week and get pictures of the area, some other places downtown and what the RFM site looks like these days, since I hear things have closed down there, getting ready for the construction of Robinson Mall.

Misc Shistuff:  My computer chair is broken.  It looks like it needs to be welded, but I don’t think even that would fix the problem of the chair not being able to go up and down.  It just goes down when I sit on it.  Even when I just rise it up, it just falls back, even when no one is sitting in it.  I tried to keep using it, but it’s just way too wobbly and it will probably dump me in the floor if I continue to use it.  I’m going to just use the stool with a pillow until I can get the chair fixed or replaced, probably replaced.

That’s all I have for this post, but I still need to put the pictures in.  I’m not going to do that until in the morning though. There is a show on TV coming on I want to check out.  It’s called Ghost Whispers.  If it turns out that I don’t like it, I may come back in here to finish tonight, but most likely in the morning.

http://www.flyphilippines.com/pangasinan.php

Other Interesting Sites to Check out:

http://longevity.about.com/od/longevity101/g/life_span.htm

http://puregold.com.ph/home.do

Salamat, Palaam

Today in Philippine History

23 October

1895 – Emilio Jacinto y Dizon, the so-called “brains” of the underground society batting for Philippine  Revolution against Spain, the Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan (KKK) , writes ¡¡  Gising na, mga tagalog!!, an essay urging the Filipinos to wake up and unite in defending the country’s honor and dignity; Jacinto, secretary and  later, fiscal and a military leader of the Katipunan, calls upon his compatriots, particularly those with  honor and integrity, to be courageous in fighting  and engaging the Spaniards who have continuously enslaved and tyrannized the natives; “Gising na,  mga tagalog,” which Jacinto signed “J. Aging”  instead of his usual pen name “Pingkian,” is a stirring rallying callmatched by oratorical rhythm.

1896 – Some two months after the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution against Spain,revolutionaries from Taal, Lemery, Calaca, and Bayungyungan in Batangas attempt to cross the Pansipit via San Nicolas; the Batangueno revolutionaries will soon  disperse after a brief skirmish with colonial forces as the defending Spanish garrison located in San  Nicolas are reinforced by colonial soldiers from  Taal.

1898 – Following a series of surrenders in the Philippines, the Spanish colonial forces in Baler, Tayabas capitulate to the Filipinos after holding off for some time the offensive of revolutionaries led by Teodorico Novico; the attack by Filipinos from Pantabangan, Carangalan, and San Jose de  Casiguran in Tayabas  (now Quezon) came more  than four months after the declaration of Philippine  Independence and two months after the infamous Mock Battle of Manila wherein the emerging  imperialist nation, the United States, and colonial  Spain falsely showed to the world that it is the who Americans, and not the Filipino, who defeated the  Spanish colonizers in the Southeast Asian  archipelago.

1899 – Eight months into the bloody and protracted  Filipino-American War (1899-1914), an army  officer of the fledgling Philippine Army in Vigan, Ilocos Sur reports the capture of enemy invading Bald Eagle soldiers and the confiscation of weapons, a medical kit and, as well, a telegraphic apparatus;  reporting to the Captain-General,  the Filipino army officer briefly narrates how they staged an ambush attack against the imperialist United States forces  in their town of Vigan.

Photo credit: http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Philippine Revolutionary Army/

24 October

1874 – Rafael Palma y Velasquez, future Filipino stateman, educator, scholar, journalist, historian, and staff writer for La Independencia, the official  organ of the First Philippine Republic, is born in Tondo, Manila; Palma will join the 1898 phase of  the Philippine Revolution by joining Gen. Antonio Luna’s staff for La Independencia while a law and  business student, writing about his revolutionary advocacy under the pen names Dapit Hapon, Hapon, R. P. Villa, and Robert Paul; Palma would for a time  continue to be a journalist under colonial American Occupation before pursuing a law career and  becoming a member of the imperialist body, second Philippine Commission [translation: United States colonial commission to help colonize the Philippines], and would later become the fourth president of the University of the Philippines .

1898 – The fledgling Philippine Republic officially recognizes the Burgos Institute, a secondary college for boys serving as a sort of a preparatory college founded by Enrique Mendiola,  as a state institute with the authority to provide secondary instruction, more than a month after the  opening of the Malolos Congress; five days earlier,  the Universidad Literaria de Filipinas was  established as state university offering law, medicine, pharmacy, and notary public, also in  Malolos, Bulacan where Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo’s  government-on-the-run from posed-to-invading  imperialist Americans is based, less than four  months prior to the bloody and protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914).

Photo credit: http://joeybonifacio.multiply.com/?&preview=&item_id=471&page_start=60

25 OCTOBER

1896 – Spanish colonial Gov.-Gen. Ramon Blanco  decrees the immediate execution by firing squad of   any one who destroys public buildings and other infrastructures and support or join the revolution  against Spain  some two months after the outbreak  of the Philippine Revolution led by Andres Bonifacio y de Castro,  Supremo of the secret-society-turned-revolutionary-governmentKagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan ; Blanco had earlier placed  eight provinces of Luzon islands in  a state of war  and martial law and ordered the immediate confiscation of the properties of Filipinos who have  joined the revolution, with the revenues supposedly  to be used to finance the suppressing of the  revolution.

1901 – Imperialist Gen. Jacob H. “Howling” Smith carries out his infamous and most vile and atrocious policy to “Kill every one [Filipinos] over  ten” in the province of Samar two years and eight months into the bloody and  protractedPhilippine-American War (1899-1914);  known euphemistically as the “Balanggiga Affair,”  the wicked campaign is part of United States’  revengeful invasion of Samar following the successful attack  launched by freedom-fighting townspeople of  Balanginga that killed several of the enemy Bald  Eagle forces in a surprise attack on a convent house  where they were headquartered  a month earlier;  Smith’s burn and kill order that covered all Filipinos  who do not surrender did not spare children 10  years of age and  will convert the province into a “howling wilderness.”