Page Ranking to a Cebuano Blogger

I have not heard nor have given attention to blogging until only mid-2007. A lot of things were cooking up then that I simply did not have time to look at other beautiful and exciting things free stuffs can offer. I started my Cebuano Blogging roughly 7 months ago and it was all a trial and error approach. I did not know what to blog about, as I only knew that it was tweaking some html codes in the process. This I have mentioned in my previous posts.

But with that short span of time that I got to have a peek of the blogging world, one by-word could easily be identified and that was Page Ranking. Well, what is that anyways? I did not know then and I don't know more now. For all I care is that this so-called page ranking somehow gives a site higher authority than others. Higher authority means that the Google search engine have archived enough pages from your website that when a phrase related to your site is searched, your URL address is given higher preference or authority. But I can be wrong, I am not an expert on this. I just interpret it by the way I have experienced SEO experimentation so far.

The benefit that I got from this Page Ranking thing was the opportunity to earn paid postings were widened. I got to qualify to post on higher paying opportunities than before. But I know as like in anything, this has to be done in a lot of moderation so as not to lose that long-awaited page ranking.

Connecting to the Blogging Community

In today's age, the world have been closer by the day. Though not physically as it still takes the same "x" kilometers to travel from home to destination but reaching it have all been easier. Technology have given each one of us a wider range of means to reaching-out to people yet at the comfort and time we wish. With emails, online social networking, Voice Over IP, instant messaging, mobile communications, there are varied ways to choose and only one's resourcesfullness is the limit to how one can take advantage of these tools. Online diaries, which we all know as Blog, have developed into quite an interesting tool over the years. It has evolved from being a personal expression tool to now a varied ways of connecting to people especially to friends.

I have joined PayPerPost as this gives me more opportunities to write something which I am passionate about. It gives me the drive to better my niche on online business blogs and ups the ante on weblogs. I have been yearning for about sometime of when I could join the payperpost community and join thousands of bloggers talk about stuff they feel confident about and expresses more the ideas of what their blogs would want to represent. Being a CEBUANO BLOGGER makes me be open to the marketplace of the world and connects me to the world of blogging.

This is the beauty that I see on PayPerPost and have enticed me to join the community of review blogging.

My BUCKET LIST Reflection

Don't ask me again if where and how I saw BUCKET LIST, the only thing relevant is that I've seen it. I'd like to share with you a sort of "my movie review" of the film, but this is definitely not a spoiler. A caution though, this movie’s genre is definitely not for teenagers. You may also have to be ready to feel the weight of sadness after watching the movie. If you want to have to feel relaxed, you’d better not buy tickets for this movie.

The Plot:
Bucket list showcases a simplest story telling outline without useless fancy twists thus gives the viewers more focus on the dept of what the story intends to deliver. It begins with a traditional backgrounder of each character and slowly develops the storyline of how the movie would evolve. The movie's beginning tends to be dragging and a bit boring but equally important to the entire storyline as this lay-out starter is the foundation of what develop as the story goes on.

The Actors:
Morgan Freeman's calm and humble persona and Jack Nicholson's sarcastic and straight-forward character was a great mixture to portray a story as deep as bucket list. The two were perfect for the roles which gave credit and further realism to the crisis the characters fought to overcome. MORGAN FREEMAN and JACK NICHOLSON - enough said, you know the works.

The Message:
Beyond the magnificent settings the movie showcased, it was the depth of the conversation that will move viewers to a lot of realizations. The movie's theme for me was: making up for lost dreams, where we realize that it is not important of how we will become but how we have lived our lives. The message was definitely not new as there have been a lot of movies that showcased such situations, but as it is in life, we will always never be tired of seeing people rise above crisis situations. More so, even if it meant that there would be no escaping destiny yet it is of the fashion that we face it with that will show our strength and character. I was moved by a scene in which the characters were in Egypt. It said that when people die, a question is given to one who wants to enter heaven and these are: 1 - Have you experienced joy in your life? And; 2 - Have you given joy to others?

Definitely a good movie for the weekend.

Searching for the Right Kind of Love

Love creates meaning to things we do. Beyond the trials we go through in our life journeys, it is always with a loved one that we surpass all of it. Be it love between parents to children, sons and daughters to parents, friends, husband and wife, man and woman, there are varied ways of expressing these by one to another.

The way we manifest our love may not be the same for everyone. As equally relevant is a person's uniqueness, each person requires too, different types of loving attention. Love may be shown to by how much we care for another person. A great tool to finding this care information is through the internet. Nursing homes vary to the type of services they provide thus is essential that we care search carefully. Through nursing home search engines, we find information on care.

My Mumblings on Cebu City Map

I have been mumbling about politics but I haven't just gotten the courage to post it on a blog. I consider my political inclination as personal and would rather keep it to myself. But I am making this post as an exception. And hopefully, this would be one of the few if not the only post that would include a personal opinion with regards to politics.

So here we go again. It's hard to resist something like things even if I'm just mumbling in my own CUBICLED PLAYGROUND in this humble CEBU CITY MAP. It never ceases to amaze me how we could always associate a month with a particular issue. Are we overly sensationalizing news items or it is because we FILIPINOS SIMPLY LOVE an event. Pardon my hypothesis but is it because it ligthens us up by focusing more on stuffs of a so-called "NATIONAL INTEREST ISSUE" and drags it for months or even years rather than solving the grass roots problem of our society?

So what if we change the SPEAKER of the LOWER HOUSE OF CONGRESS, it isn't the first time anyways. For a lack of a better hobby, why not also change the PRESIDENT as well, we've been quite adjusted to it anyways. It's not like its not a natural occurrence, isn't it? A broadband deal gone bad is just too hard to resist for an issue to call for a PRESIDENT's ouster. For crying out loud, have you just heared such demands for the first time? This have always been a hot issue even for a CEBU CITY MAP. And while we're at it, why not change the constitution?

Oh, when will we ever get tired of all these an focus on something that we all can be proud off. Can the CEBU CITY MAP push for autonomy? Just thinking out loud. For all this is worth, this could be part of my SEO experiment.

CEBU CITY MAP ISSUES OF THE WEEK

There are two huge issues in the country these days. These things definitely involve politics though one of them directly affects the Filipino people more than the other, and of course includes the CEBU CITY MAP.

Issue number one is about the looming power war for the SPEAKERSHIP OF THE LOWER HOUSE OF CONGRESS. The battle for dominance and influence will be shown most probably this afternoon as CONGRESS may do voting on who, between the current speaker JOSE DE VENECIA JR. and challenger CONGRESSMAN NOGRALES of DAVAO CITY, will lead the Philippine Lower House. Though both are affiliated with the PRESIDENT GMA, both have been holding their own caucauses to convince fellow congressmen to take to their sides for a now definite HOUSE SPEAKERSHIP BATTLE. As CEBUANOS in the CEBU CITY MAP, we now only witness on the sidelines the power war that may start this afternoon. My hope is that may these two distinguished gentlemen always remember that whatever they are fighting for may benefit the majority of the FILIPINO PEOPLE and not just the select few who only wants to expand their influence and richness at the sake of a PHILIPPINE STABILITY.

Issue number two is the issue on a new law affecting our OFWs. It says:

Stricter rules on direct hiring of OFW was issued recently by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. The rules which takes effect on January 15, 2008 allows direct hiring of OFWs by foreign employers only upon approval by the Secretary of Labor and subject to screening of employers and employment contract verification by the Labor Attaché or the Philippine Embassy.

Direct hiring may be allowed only for members of the diplomatic corps and of international organizations, government officials of m inisterial level, and employers who are hiring on one-time or trial basis. The number of employees to be hired directly shall not exceed 5.

More on this new can be found at this link.

I think this adversely affects the competitiveness of our OFWs in finding jobs outside of the country. I just hope the benefits further outweigh the disadvantage that this new law may bring to the CEBU CITY MAP and to the Filipino working population.

Too Little Time, Too Much to Tell

Let me give you a breather from all my Cebu City Map series and talk about something supposedly entertaining, until you watch it. I've seen "The Seeker: The Dark is Rising". No, don't ask me about where I saw the movie, this entry is not about that. This wouldn't be much of a spoiler also since I wouldn't be talking about the plot either. This would probably have to be my 2 cents on the movie in general.

I have not read the novel and neither have I heard of it prior to watching the movie, so my only source of information about its story was the movie itself. The story was fairly simple; nothing shown in the movie that got too complicated. But that was actually one failure they had. It showed nothing about the past of the groups' beginnings. It said that the boy was "the seventh son of a seventh son", so what? Did it mean that his father also had 6 big brothers? And then what? Or did it mean the generation to which the father belonged to? Why the coincidence to the rise of the dark side? How were the "Older Members" of the society chosen, where they the 6th son of a seventh son that they didn't qualify for the job? (Ok, I'm being corny! LOL!) Where the "Old Members" related to the boy's family and indeed they belonged to the same family tree? Or were the "Old Members" also seekers in their youth but their powers have now faded?

Darn, at the end of the story, you'd end up making your own storyline than be convinced of what was presented. And oh, I watched the movie because I don't have time reading the novel. Watching it was like entering the movie house at the middle of the show, you wouldn't know how it came to be other than the fact that the boy had the responsibility to save the world and he had powers, for some reason though, I did not see him using it during times of battle.

There clearly were numerous attempts of mellow-dramatic scenes, but it failed miserably. It was like the scenes were very much in a hurry to have itself done and move on to the next that it ended up being just a show of special effects rather than a story-teller. There have been movies which lasted for 3 hours or more yet it gained a lot of revenues. So budget constraints might have been the factor of cutting a movie that could have been great, but that was one movie very much in a hurry to be done and over with.

I felt terrible after watching the movie. Not that darkness failed to conquer the light, but darkness indeed conquered my imagination. I didn't know what to make up with it. I had lots of questions about the movie that now I'm trying to google the story just to feed my inquiries.

Cebu City Map to Business: Borderless Trading

The world has once again shrunk to a diameter-feet lesser and the CEBU CITY MAP magnified to the world. Paypal just introduced a new innovation by allowing its account owners trunsfer funds to local Philippine banks. What's more exciting about it is that a minimal fee of Php.50 pesos is charged for fund transfers lower than Php.7,000 while free if higher than the latter amount. (Heck, this could be a paid post and me earning! Where are you Blogvertiser! This is Blogvertiser stuff!)

Anyways, this news simply makes money-making online a lot more interesting. Aside from the fact that Blogvertiser makes this stuff a lot cooler. Prior to this, cashing up one's paypal funds ended up with only two easy options, one was opening an account from a specified bank or having it applied to one's visa card. This feature not only opens e-commerce at a personal "blog advertising" driven trading but further gives e-commerce entrepreneurs a wider option to sell to the world. This opportunity creates a borderless CEBU CITY MAP business, or rightly - a MAPLESS CEBU CITY.

Cebu City Map to Business: A Team Effort to Improve

I personally know only two cebuano blog authors so far, the rest - I know them to be either found on a CEBU CITY MAP or cebuano but outside the country through blogging. If I would look at the CEBU CITY MAP, it is undoubtedly a very small place where I can travel anywhere within CEBU CITY from one point to another at no more than 45 minutes, street traffic being normal. It is thus quite surprising how small CEBU CITY is yet not once have there been a meet of cebuano blog owners that I have heard of. Well, at least not one which there have been a public announcement of such.

Blogging, as an organized group interest has not yet been given much attention to put the CEBU CITY MAP on the blogging community. My personal opinion on this is that though people, even cebuanos want to connect with other people online but blogging for a lot of them is simply just that, a personal web log. That being personal, writing an entry therefore require not much of inter-action with other people and not even fellow blog enthusiasts. As a medium of self-expression, a cebuano or blog author in general simply has one consideration in writing a piece and that is himself.

However, I do believe that just like any hobby or passion that has inter-action, a group interest activity may further enhance not just the writer but also the activity itself. CEBU blogging might have a stronger impact to CEBU CITY if this would be geared to an effort on which goal a group directs on. Someone to take the lead may just be what the group needs to draw a blogging CEBU CITY MAP.

TRAVEL from CEBU to BLOGOSPHERE

I enjoy reading a lot, that was the inspiration of this blog, which I have also manifested on my second post. My day online starts by visiting CEBU’s community dailies to update myself of things that keeps my city busy. I have set-up my web browser’s favorites by grouping the ONLINE NEWS sites together so I would merely have to click on the link one after the other. Simultaneous with opening the news, I open a separate tab for my CUBICLED PLAYGROUND, of course. It for me is also news of how the site has been visited while I was off-line. Those of course are also simultaneously browsed while waiting for the emails that have waited for my local inbox to be opened from yesterday’s closure of the LAPTOP. CEBUANO multi-tasking at its best, LOL!

After those extras done, I then start my feed readings. I feel that I could be more updated, of what other bloggers who I have linked with have written, easier by subscribing feeds on their blogsite. Those who have frequently visited my site as to extend their regards may feel that I may seem snobbish of not visiting their sites in return but believe me when I say that I am well aware of what you guys have written. From time to time even, when I feel that I have some thoughts on the things fellow bloggers have published, I comment on those. I feel that with this activity, I have reached the far corners of the world yet still be in my beloved CEBU CITY, right down from MY CUBICLE.

I don’t often do blog hopping but I love the idea of it. It somehow tells me how small the world is and how easily I could travel the world yet be just right in the middle of CEBU. I believe that more important than such an activity is to update on the news of fellow bloggers by subscribing feeds. I am perhaps an easy loyalist. I am loyal to CEBU and I am fascinated by my linked bloggers.

I hope ABS-CBN and GMA airs Sinulog

Having been almost at almost the same age as the Sinulog festival itself, I could fairly call myself well-informed of the activity. I remember even the days when I had to sit over my father’s shoulders just to watch the parade pass by us. I have even been a participant at one-time during my elementary, of the grand parade being a part of the "Landonian Tribe" contingent. I've experienced how it was to wear an elaborate costume and at the same time dance the Sinulog beat under the scourging heat of the sun for almost about 10 hours. Interestingly, I remember not ever feeling tired even from the weeks of evening practices up to the grand parade itself.

My mother's side of the family is very active of the Sinulog. My uncles, being kababata to the owners of the renowned San Diego Dance Company made us, which of course include my uncles, me and my cousins, be part of a number of Sinulog parades. Sinulog fiesta is usually the time where we hold our family reunion on my mother's side, since Cebu is really my maternal ancestry is rooted.

Here's my survival list for those who which to join all the activities for the Sinulog starting Saturday up to Sunday.

1 - Prayer First
The grand parade happens to be a Sunday so better fulfill your obligation first before the merry making. It would even be better that you attend a mass at the Basilica if you're up to the challenge of haggling amongst the sea of people who attends the masses during that day.

2 - Use Coin Purse
Rather than using your usual wallets, I suggest you use a coin purse just big enough to carry some cash and an Identification Card. The streets will be overflowing with people and you'll be literally face-to-face with a lot strangers so you would rather put your mind on the merry making rather the worrying of pick pockets. Using a coin purse will give you the convenience of tucking it in the front pockets of your pants where it will be safe from strange hands.

3 - A scarf or a sarong would be handy
A sun screen would only last you for at most four hours so it would help if you bring with you a scarf or a sarong to protect you from the sun. Bringing a bottle of sun screen simply takes away the adventures for the day.

4 - Keep dehydrated
That wouldn't be much of a problem as there are plenty of sources for that. Every corner you look, there is most usually bottled waters for sale.

5 - A good pair of shoes
Forget those fancy sandals or expensive high heels. Though you wouldn't be going on a mountain climbing, but your feet will fighting for walking and standing space every now and then during that day so better be equipped with that.
My uncle will be arriving tomorrow together with my lola from abroad, so that simply means that reunion activities kick off.

So it seems

Blogging have trickled my interest back to programming. I have had a background on a little about programming but that was way too long ago. I was even lucky enough to have had that exposure on a time when schools were still on the crossroad of inculcating computer technology to their curriculum. Luckier that it was in our batch in high school that we already had a one-to-one ratio, where one student would be assigned a computer set. Better was that the subject on computer basics and programming wasn't just an icing topic but we did dwelled deeper on the subject and at the end of the course would be a project incorporating all the basics learned for the semester.

People who are younger than my generation would definitely be amazed at this trivia. Amazed not because of the fact that we had programming in high school but amazed that I had to reach high school to better my knowledge on computer systems and applications. Children nowadays are even learning on some basics on computer technology as early as kindergarten. When we already speak about "mouse" to elementary graders, instincts tells them not anymore of rodents but of a peripheral in a computer set. The only storage devices that children could relate are diskettes but little did they know that diskettes should have been called as micro floppy drives as its predecessor was called as the mini floppy drive.

Technology has really changed since I first encountered the Personal Computer. And I don't see any sign of plateauing anytime soon. So, I'm riding the waves of excitement on the World Wide Web. I am an inch close to putting up my own website. The things that I think I'd learn from such experience are just so tempting. Add to that would be the possibility of earning some bucks while doing it makes it all the more interesting.

The only thing that is holding me back is the thought of what I’ll be putting on my site. Any ideas?

Surprise, surprise! I’ve been nominated

Surprisingly, I’ve been nominated in the polls for the Weekly Filipino Blog of the Week. The criteria aren’t that complicated really, anybody and even the blog authors could nominate themselves. There are 10 blogs to be voted on for the Filipino Blog of the Week. Voting, I think, starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday. Voters could cast their votes daily and at the end of the week, whoever gets the highest vote earns 55 points of the 100-point total criterion, 10 points comes from the blog owner, and the remaining 35 points will be determined by a group of Filipino blog judges.

How I got to join the contest, if you ask me? I don’t know. I’ve been hopping around the blogging community to read and in the process, learn from it. It has not yet been long that I’ve started doing blogs and I suppose I’m still way, way far from mastering the craft. In fact, I even haven’t reached 3 months and 20 posts, so that instantly disqualifies me to pro-blogging, hehehe. I’ve done some tweaking here and there and I’ve been trying to build on the theme of my blog, which is of the finance and corporate setting. Equally important are the topics that I post, which has to be thought-off much, as this speaks not only of my opinion but of the science and art of accounting. Being in the CPA profession for quite sometime now have grown in me the necessity for an unrelenting conservatism both in financial opinion or application, which I may air out in this blog.

On the other hand, choosing a weekly Filipino Blog is quite an interesting activity. The nominees are not chosen based on the PR rank, not by the volume of visitors and moreso, not because of popularity but simply because it exists. This, I think is the most touching part of this activity. As what we may always would have wanted life to be, one does not have to be somebody but simply because one is there. Because one is part of existence that it is given time and opportunity to part of something and that is what matters. I wouldn’t be happy of having the golden ribbon, which will be awarded at the end of this week. I am already happy now, because though my blog is still a new-born and definitely still has a long way to go in terms of development, but then being part of the Weekly Filipino Blog Nominees confirms that indeed, I have been born to world of blogging. I am now a certified citizen of blogospher. I am existent!

Now, while were at it, why don’t you give your voting powers a try at The Composed Gentleman’s site.

n days Until Christmas

As of this writing, its only 19 days to go until Christmas. Naturally, Filipinos simply love Christmas. That’s like the biggest event of the year. Parties, oh wait, it not just party, its fiesta everywhere. This time of the year is simply puts each and every Filipino in light mood the whole holidays season.

My family just set-up our Christmas decorations lately which is actually earlier than the usual as we normally start decorating the house on the 1st Sunday of Advent. Ours has always been a most modest decorations. For almost a decade now, we have the nativity scene ornamented with Christmas lights as the centerpiece of the decoration.

I actually started this, if you may, family decorating tradition. Since, I have always thought that the nativity scene was more meaningful for me than the pine tree. It feels more native, I think. Looking at the scene helps me to always remember that we celebrate the Christmas season as a time for thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for the year that is about to end and a fitting reminder of where to get the much needed strength for the year that is to come.

But before I get dramatic and all, I would like to wish everyone a meaningful Christmas Season ahead!

Tweaking and twinkling

I just love the idea of having full control of what has and should not appear on my site. I've done some updating today, well it's actually almost everyday that, on my blog settings and on my blogroll.

I've noticed that there have been some who visited my message board and asked to tag their sites to mine which I've done in almost instantly but I've noticed too that they haven't done their part also. And with reciprocity in mind, I thought that I would keep only those that have blogrolled me too on their site or otherwise I really liked the site that it would not matter if I was on their site.

So there, the names you see on my blogroll are those who have kept their part of the bargain or those blogs that I really liked. For some who didn't keep the part of the bargain, I had to stash them on the sides for the moment.

How about you? What's your criteria for blogrolling sites?

Thinking Out Loud

A financial analyst’s quandary is being seriously brainstormed by the financial management team of Manila Peninsula. The issue was that how a person known by the codename “Boy Check-in” checked in the hotel for no more than 12 hours yet will be footing a bill more than any private or corporate function ever held in Manila Pen.

Now seriously, I pity the pawns of this guy’s parlor games. He has blatantly exploited his subordinates by using the philosophy of chain of command yet at the middle of his adventurism, left the common sundalo to free-fall to doom. “Boy Check-in” has talked much of standing for what he believes is for the country yet have no courage to hold true even if only for standing for the right of his subordinates. I so pity the common sundalo that this guy has taken advantage of.

Perhaps, it is now time to look at the micro level of this event. What happens now to those soldiers who were only following the chain of command? But don’t get me wrong on this question, I am not saying that we release those soldiers who were only following instructions as they themselves had a choice before getting into what they had to go to. My point would be, are these people sympathetic to “Boy Check-in” will once again blame the government for whatever happens to the common sundalo? I say blood is on the hands of those who orchestrated this sad even of our history.