Wednesday – 3 Aug 2011

[smartads] Northern Mindanao is the peaceful, politically stable northern region of the Philippines’ most exotic and resource rich island of Mindanao. It is a progressive region, with large tracts of land available for agriculture and industry. It is blessed with natural wonders: large, protected forests white sandy beaches, coral reefs and sheltered bays rich with aquatic life. It is accessible and a strategic location for trade.

http://www.evis.net.ph/subregions/subregion10.htm

Useless Knowledge:  Television horse Mr. Ed was foaled in 1949 in El Monte, California. Mr. Ed’s original name was Bamboo Harvester. Raised as a parade and show horse, he was once owned by the president of the California Palomino Society. He died in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, on February 28, 1979, at age 30.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Ed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Lane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Young

http://www.e-philippines.com.ph/philippine-destinations/cagayan-de-oro/

2 Aug –  Hits @ 0114 = 807450 = 8469.

I added several more things to the mythology section.  So if you like that, check it out.  It get rather confusing to tell you the truth.  I’ll doubt I’ll ever get close to getting ALL of them in there, but I will get a lot.  I figure that anyone that is in to that stuff will be able to put it in some kind of order and probably already knows more than I ever will.

I’m locked out of my own website.  I can get on the Internet and anyplace else I want to go, except my blog.  It’s about time for bed anyway.  I’ll send a message to Bob, maybe he is having problems on that end.   — Oh yeah, of course.  About 2 minutes after I sent the message, it decided to start working.  Now I have to send another message to Bob.  After that, it’s bedtime because it’s 0205.

http://bestphilippineattractions.com/2011/01/02/best-philippine-destinations-region-x-northern-mindanao/

Well I decided to emerge from the bedroom at 0837.  Lita needed help in the store again.  She wanted to go back to sleep and Vicky was at a school meeting.  So it’s too much work for Sally to do by herself.  Lita has been sick recently, so I’ll go out there to sit and wait.

The very first customer that came by was one that is uncomfortable talking to Americans  She asked Sally instead.  Sally should have just told me and I would have gotten it, but she came all the way around to get it.  I’ll have to tell Lita, to tell her to let me do it so maybe the customer will see that there is no need to be afraid.  I may just start locking the door when I go in there.  Vicky wasn’t gone long.  She showed back up at 0848.

http://www.byahilo.com/category/mindanao/northern-mindanao/#axzz1Tz6zSJsA

I had 3 peanut butter and banana sandwiches and a bottle of water.  I also got the last Granny Smith apple out here with me.  I’ve already eaten the other two apples (not today).

After eating I went to shave.  It was just too itchy.  I told Vicky what I was doing so she could watch the store.  For some reason she thought it was funny.  I guess it was funny because I was explaining anything to her at all.  There really was no need for me to explain to her, just do it.

I do know that I need to get some new razors.  The ones I have are no good.  It’s like they are not sharp anymore and they just pull the hair off instead of cutting it.  I found this bag of razors on the floor behind a box next to my side of the bed.  It’s probably a bag that I brought from Texas and it fell out of my bag soon after I got here and have been laying on the floor this whole time.

http://www.free-online-web-directory.com/directory2/about_asia/websites_people_in_the_phi/northern_mindanao_region_x/northern_mindanao_region_x.html

I just figured out something that would be a great present for Lita.  She needs one of those wireless headphones for the TV.  Sometimes she has that TV so loud, I can’t even concentrate here in the next room.  It’s not always her fault because some of the stations have different levels of loudness.  Those wireless headphones would be great for both of us.  I guess they still make such a thing.  I haven’t seen any since my Dad use to wear them around the house when he was a TV hog.  Now he is on the computer a lot.  This was not in my notes, but as I was typing, she had the TV blaring and I had to ask her to turn it down again.

Today or tomorrow, whenever I go downtown, I’ll get some new razors and some more foam too.  They don’t have the gel here that I can find, but it doesn’t really matter.  I guess it’s a good time to play Yahtzee.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=701998&page=355

Crap!  ***Yahtzee sucks ***

You know it really doesn’t bother me too much when the bata stare at me or when girls, young or old, stare at me, but when a full grown man stares, that bothers me.  I had that happen once yesterday, then again this morning.  It’s only 10:28 and I’ve already got that on my mind.

While I’m ranting about things, my name is not Joe.  Yeah I know the Joe thing got started with the US GI in WWII.  Heck that war was over before I was even born.  It’s been 66 years since that war ended.  Some of the kids just say, “Hey Joe” and probably don’t even know why they do it, just because their parents did it.  You would think that someone, somewhere along the way would have explained things to the children.  I don’t know what the thinking is on that anymore.  Maybe they just say it because they want to say something but they don’t know what to say.  I know that I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t even bother responding if they say, “Hey Joe”, especially from children.  Heck, I think that is even disrespectful.   Now if they just say, “Hi” or “Hello”, then I’ll respond.

http://philtoa.org/destinations.php?region_id=12

I just finished a whole large crossword puzzle.  One that wasn’t classified as “easy”.  Those I do all the time.  Most of the ones in this book I have to either leave blank or peek at the answer.  On this one, no blank spaces and not peeking.  I did it in ink, so there are a couple of corrections.

It’s 11:15 and the lunch people customers are starting to show up.  I didn’t think about it until today, but we have a dine in or take out service.  I mean, it’s obvious, I just didn’t think about it in that way, until now.  We even have the little doggie bags.  Also sometimes people pull up on their motorcycle and just order straight from that, so that would be a drive thru.  Plus there have been a few times that someone in here would take the food out to the customer, if they were unable to get out or unable to get out easily.  That would qualify as a car hop.  We’ve just got it all in this little area here.  You will never see a tip though.

http://spongevega.blogspot.com/2011/01/philippines-top-10-tourist-attraction.html

Lita is renting out her little pocket books (dime romance novels).  She wants a P30 deposit and P5 for each book rented.  You have to explain the “deposit” part and some of the people don’t understand.  I can’t explain it to them properly and I’m not even sure Vicky understands it.  I don’t like it when someone shows up for that and Lita is not around to explain it to them.  Maybe J has it down, but he is at school most of the time now.

Useless Knowledge:  In the early 1940s, Swiss inventor George de Mestral took a walk with his dog. Upon returning home, he noticed that his pants were covered with cockleburs. His studied them under a microscope, where he discovered their natural hook like shape. This became the basis for a unique, two-sided fastener: one side with stiff “hooks” like the burrs and the other side with the soft “loops” like the fabric of his pants. The result was VELCRO. brand fasteners, named for the French words velour and crochet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_de_Mestral

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocklebur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velcro

http://doki-d.blogspot.com/

Oops!  The wind just took our large umbrella.  Glad it didn’t go very far.  A man stopped by to get some cigarettes and ice.  He decided he wanted to talk to me.  His English was passable but, to put it nicely, this guy didn’t have a top floor for his elevator.  He mostly talked about WWII and how great General MacArthur was, but at least he took time to try to talk.  Most others don’t even bother.

It’s 12:12pm now and all the customers are gone already.  The 3rd Grand Tour van, since I’ve been sitting here, just stopped out front to let people out that were going to the Ciriaco.

All the school kids that left school to go home for lunch are now starting to trickle in the other direction, back towards the school.

http://mindanaotour.wordpress.com/bukidnon/

Little Vicky, that’s what I call Vicky’s daughter because I don’t know what her real name is, just asked me for change for a  P5.  So I counted out ..1, 2 , 3, 5 ..  That got a look of shock on her face, her brother’s face (whom I call Little Ricky), and a friend of theirs here with them.  Of course I did give her the other peso.  Now I hear them over there saying ..1, 2, 3, 5 ..and laughing.  I know they are laughing because of me, not at me though.

For some reason, I smell BBQ brisket.  I mean like the brisket from Texas.  I must have a very vivid imagination.

Another Grand Tour van at 12:42pm.

It’s 12:50 now and the bata are still trickling towards the school.  I guess they have staggered lunch breaks because they seem to be getting older as time goes on.

http://www.megascene.net/?p=4899

Lita and I went downtown @ 1:10pm.  We got the money and paid some of the bills.  We also stopped by Mercury Drug to get a few things including that new razor and shaving foam I told you about.  That’s about all I got that I needed, but also got a couple of things I wanted.

Like I said, Lita was with me.  When she’s with me I can’t walk all over town taking pictures.  She always wants to get going and says she doesn’t want to walk around because it’s hot, or she’s tired, or something.  I saw a sign, I think it was on a church, that said, “Say No to the RH Bill”.  I wanted a picture of it, but I didn’t notice it until we were already past and I couldn’t go back.  I will try to get downtown by myself this week and take a few pictures, hopefully of things that I don’t already have.  Maybe of some of the many eateries they have downtown.

I also want to take newer and closer pictures of the new market area and bus stations, so maybe I can do all that on the same day.

http://mindanaotouristspots.blogspot.com/

They guy that is fixing the fan is waiting for a part.  The motor won’t spin the blade without whatever that part is.  Whenever we got back from downtown, he had the good fan taken apart.  I didn’t know anything about that, but I guess Lita did, because she didn’t say anything.  She knows I didn’t tell him, the guy barely speaks any English.  But the inside of the fan was really dirty, so it really needed to be cleaned anyway.  It’s running great right now.

While we were downtown, we stopped by the Korean Store.  I saw some fans in there in the P1000-P1800 range.  Very tempting, but as usual, Lita had some things to do with the money that she didn’t tell me about, until I actually had the money.  I like to plan out how the money is going to be leaving me, but she always dampens those plans.

http://onlinemindanao.com/travel/travel%20cagayan.html

So while in the Korean Store I bought 3 pens and 5 notebooks.  We also stopped by Chow King to eat.  Lita wanted some Halo-Halo and I got the orange chicken family order.  I seriously do not see how that is enough for an entire family.  With that, 1 order of rice and 2 large Cokes, I managed.  I was feeling full right as I was taking my last few bites.  I think that next time I’m going to try the Chicken Mami, just to see how it tastes.  It only cost P49 ($1.16) for a single serving.  Lita says it taste like the Ramen noodles we have in the US.  I always liked those.

The one at Chow King looked to have less water in it.  In fact, it looked to have little or no water in it.

https://kikomatching.wordpress.com/tag/chowking/

Except for me being in LolyKat for a little while longer, it’s been pretty uneventful for the last few hours.  It’s 9:23pm now and I’m in the process of doing the post for my activities yesterday (Monday).  These notes will be typed up tomorrow (now).

Our electric bill for this past month was about P800 less than the previous month.  We have been trying not to use the air con too much.  I guess we will try that again, but we have been having some pretty humid weather recently, even with the typhoons in the area.

http://www.ambot-ah.com/2010/11/01/northern-mindanao-roadtrip/

Regarding Sally’s sister that was here.  It turns out that Sally has 5 siblings and the one that was here is a school teacher.

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ph-x.html

Useless Knowledge:  The first person to work out the use of fingerprints for identification purposes, English anthropologist Francis Galton, was a first cousin of Charles Darwin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerprint

Salamat, Palaam

Today in Philippine History

2 AUGUST

Gen. Isidoro Torres

1900 – Gen. Isidoro Torres, the politico-military chief of Bulacan province, receives from Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, President of the Philippine Republic on the run during the  Filipino-American War (1899-1914), a letter instructing him to adopt effective counter-measures against the imperialist American soldiers who make alluring offers to tempt the native soldiers to abandon the fight for the sovereignty of their motherland; during the inauguration of the Philippine Republic on January 23, 1899, Torres led a 6,000-strong army that marched in the historic parade, which occurred just under two weeks before the imperialist American nation began its invasion of the Southeast Asian archipelago; earlier in the summer of 1897 during the second phase of the Philippine Revolution, with the United States rather concurrently fighting a war against Spain,  American Admiral George Dewey forged an “alliance”  with Aguinaldo; such ‘alliance,’ however, would turn out to be a sinister deceptive ploy of the Bald Eagle nation that would soon renege on its military leaders’ promises of honoring Philippine Independence, and even staging the infamous Mock Battle of Manila that would falsely make it appear that the Americans, instead of the Filipino revolutionaries, defeated the Spanish colonial forces in the Southeast Asian archipelago and the capital, Manila, as prelude to the baseless December 1898 Treaty of Paris where by that time,  the virtually expelled Spaniards will supposedly “cede” the Philippines to imperialist America.