I Miss Adgitize

Since the closure of Adgitize last month, my android-googler blog's page views and ranking has dropped drastically. For the last quarter of 2011, I have been enjoying more than a thousand page views every day and i feel so good about the prospect of achieving at least three hundred thousand page views for the year 2012 given the daily stats.

Adgitize's system works very well for my sites but it is very saddening to hear from Ken Brown, its founder, that running the system is more expensive than the revenues that it gets from advertisers. The closure came into a time  when I was seriously considering upgrading to the paid service. Luckily for me, the closure announcement was dispatched before I punched in my paypal account to pay for monthly advertising at Adgitize.

For my three months of free subscription from Adgitize, I only managed to generate 66 cents and I don't expect it to be credited into my paypal account knowing that the first payout is 10 dollars. That amount was generated by one of my PTC or Paid to Click membership in only a few days. Lucky for the members who have been into Adgitize since day one on its three years of existence.

One thing that I appreciate from Adgitize is the inspiration to write a blog post everyday to get paid. Because of Adgitize  I was able to force myself to write a post daily. Upon closing of Adgitize and removal of the ads in my blog, I am slipping back into one post a week as evidenced by this first post for the year 2012. That should not happen and I should be able to get back on track the soonest time possible.

Herbert W. Armstrong - Raising the Ruins by Stephen Flurry

During my teen years in the 80's I used to subscribe to the Plain Truth and Youth Magazines published by then Worldwide Church of God headed by the late Herbert W. Armstrong. I was a high school student that time and my routine outside of the school involves mainly staying at home and reading all sorts of books, magazines and booklets provided absolutely free of charge by the Pasadena, California based religious group. I was a very avid reader and follower of Mr. Armstrong's teachings and I was even a student of the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course. I collected and read almost all of the books and booklets published that time and I can recall having a hard time trying to find a place for the stuff in our very small bamboo and "nipa" house which has only two rooms, one being our kitchen and the other the living room which used to be our  bedroom at night. Somehow I managed to keep all the stuff until my college days but due to the frequent typhoons that visit our hometown every so often, I was unable to preserve the printed materials. Had our house been made of concrete and galvanized roofing, there is a very big possibility that those materials could still be around till this day.

For so many years after I graduated from college and joined the work force, I totally forgot about the Worldwide Church of God and its free literature and teachings. I also lost track of Mr. Armstrong and I just recently found out his fate and what became of his church when I accidentally stumbled upon a magazine called "The Trumpet" and a hardbound book named "Raising the Ruins" in my home in the province. It turned out that my younger brother did not lose track and continued subscribing to the publications of the Worldwide Church of God or its offshoot which became Philadelphia Church of God after Mr. Armstrong's demise. I remember my younger brother which was a little kid then  used to fiddle with my magazines and booklets and somehow got attracted to the contents and became an avid fan himself while I totally forgot about it.

Anyway, after reading the magazine and the book, I suddenly remembered everything about Mr. Armstrong and his works and how it subconsciously influenced my thinking in my adulthood. I was deeply saddened upon knowing of the circumstances and events that transpired after Mr. Armstrong's death. The disintegration and eventual demise of the religious empire that he built was very akin to a classic and somewhat thriller movie which would make you loathe the protagonists. The conspiracy and the deception orchestrated by Mr. Armstrong's successor, was a treachery to the highest level. For one Mr. Armstrong himself should be blamed for his greatest mistake of appointing a successor which would become the one to destroy what he has started and painstakingly built for so many years. If he would have stuck to his original plan of relinquishing his powers to the council, things could have been very different today.

I salute Mr. Stephen Flurry, his father and the few faithful who stuck it out,persisted and worked hard to fight for Mr. Armstrong's legacy and for reviving Mr. Armstrong's writings and distributing it for free just like the old days. I feel guilty for forgetting about Mr. Armstrong and his works and for not having extended any support during all those years that his organization was embattled and under attack by the very persons that he trusted to continue his lifelong mission to spread God's word and to enlighten people about what the Bible really says. To make up for my shortcoming  in my own little way, I'm gonna help spread the word.

Toy Review: Nerf Gun

This toy gun is a very nice Christmas gift to little boys who loves shoot 'em up games. The toy set comes in pairs of two together with a dozen of darts made up of soft but sturdy material as "bullets". The darts have little suction cups installed in front  which sticks to its target when fired. The nice thing about it aside from the soft material which is not harmful to little kids, the suction cups sticks anywhere you fire it. Be  it on wood, concrete or glass. Procedure for firing is  the same as with a real gun,. You have to cock it first which is by way not very hard to do even for kids with weaker hands. The darts fires with just enough force but not too strong to hurt anyone who might get accidentally hit. Firing is not automatic though. You have to cock it for every shot. Each gun has six chambers for darts.

My son is enjoying it a lot and he loves shooting on the walls of our house and while he is very young, he already knows that even if it is just a toy gun, he should never point it at any person.

Travelling in a Wi-Fi Bus

Travelling by bus for 10 to 12 hours going to our hometown of Polangui some 500 kilometers south of Manila used to be so boring. But now after some years of not being home, I finally found something interesting in the buses that ply the Bicol-Manila and vice versa route. You know what it is? Wi-Fi. The buses that carried me to Bicol and back to Manila are both equipped with free Wifi on board. So from Cubao, Quezon City to the land of the Mayon Volcano in Albay, I browsed the Internet, sent some emails and endlessly chatted on Facebook till I felt dizzy of looking down into my laptop while the bus negotiated the bumps, twists and turns of the highway to Bicolandia.

The Wi-Fi service is a very welcome addition to the usual Video on Board amenity which used to be the primary source of entertainment while in transit from the big city to the province. It's nice to note also the improvement in the audio and video equipment of the buses having been transformed from the humongous CRT television sets to the modern LCD ones. That alone however cannot sway most people to ride a particular bus because to some, the choice of movie by the conductor and the driver becomes an annoyance to other people, and most of all, the passengers have no control over the type of movie to be played.

With Wi-Fi, the passengers with laptops and Wi-Fi enabled gadgets have endless possibilities for entertaining themselves and keeping them busy while traveling 500 kilometers and more. The Wi-Fi in the bus does not come without some hiccups though. As the source of the Internet access is via 3G cellular connection, we  have had some, in fact lots of disconnections due to the lack of cellular signal in some points along the way. I just hope that the Philippines' telcos will increase their signal coverage in the vast stretch of the Maharlika highway linking the various provinces of the country.

There is a very small number of buses that have Wi-Fi at the moment and the one the I rode on in transit to Bicol is the Antonina line. At six hundred fifty pesos fare from Cubao to Polangui with a latest model bus and very cold aircon system, surely it's a steal for me, with the more prominent buses charging up to almost a thousand pesos without Wi-Fi. On the way back to Manila it is the DLTB line. Though it is a hundred pesos cheaper than Antonina, i wouldn't recommend this one for you because their Wi-Fi sucks. It's so hard to connect and at one point some angry passengers suggested to the conductor to remove the Wi-Fi sticker displayed at the door of the bus because it is props only. For the 10 hour trip we never made any stable connection all the way. And by the way, their seats are also too darn straight verticaly so if you want to take some sleep instead because you cannot update and chat at Facebook, forget it because there is no way you can tilt your seat for even a little bit

My Little Architect and Graphic Artist

My little son Justin's artistic and creative ability is fast becoming evident and pronounced as he keeps growing up. Just a while ago, he called my attention and he showed me something he did on the computer. To my amazement, he drew doodles of the angry birds in full color using windows' built-in application Paint. I never taught him how to use or manipulate Paint but for some reasons he was able to do it impressively by himself. I'm so sure that even in school, where he is grade one, they do not have any computer subject yet.

His long time exposure with computers at home since he was a toddler might be one of the reasons why he finds it very easy to learn computer programs just by tinkering and curiously exploring everything he sees on the monitor. Even at this stage, he is already very proficient in using Google and Youtube for anything that catches his attention. As soon as he encounter a particular subject in everything he sees at home at school or in the neighborhood, he immediately googles it or search related shows in Youtube. Of course we let him do those things within our watch as he might stumble upon things that are not suitable for his age.

At this stage when we ask him what he wants when he grows up, he replies that he wants to be an Architect, like his proud daddy. There's some opposition from the mommy by the way, because me, the proud father never succeeded in earning the very elusive Architect's license for so may tries already. And since I am not a successful Architect, the wife looks at my career as something not worthy to be aspired for. I just keep on explaining that some things are not really meant to be but just maybe, our son will be the one who will fulfill that elusive Professional Architects' title and the money and prestige that comes with it.

Polangui Parish Church Visited

This is my second week on my old little home town  of Polangui and the places I visit always brings back memories of the olden days. The featured picture in this post is our old Sts. Peter and Paul parish church, built by the Spanish during their 300 year occupation of the Philippines.

Much of the old stone finishes of the church is now gone and it is replaced by concrete and paint. I wonder if it must have been very difficult to replicate the finish of the old stone walls because whoever decided the renovation of the church’s façade let it finished with cement plaster and paint.

I can still remember the moss laden stone walls of the church’s bell tower but I am sad to see it replaced with concrete and painted grey. They should have at the very least tried to retain the original material and fill up the gaps or whatever but having it painted tends to lessen its historical value and aesthetic quality.

In fairness to the Parish Pastoral Council and the people who helped restore the place, they have done a very good job in beautifying the patio and the “Cristorey”. The patio’s new look is a complete reversal from its sad state the last that I saw it more than 10 years ago.

As I walk the place, I recall my childhood, the first communion, the annual fiesta, Sundays and the holy week and it feels good to be back.

The bridge of our Childhood

After so many years of being away from home, I finally had the time to go home in our hometown in bicol south of the Philippine archipelago. The changes and signs of progress were very evident, from the new structures to faces of people that I never knew and people that never knew me as someone who used to live and spent wonderful childhood days in a little house by the side of the river.

The neighborhood in the vicinity of our old house hasn't changed except for a house in our back which were turned into a rented home and occupied by a family from some faraway place. Except for a very few of our childhood friends who chose to not leave the place and spent the last 40 years in the neighborhood, everyone else were either in Manila and scattered across the Globe as OFW's (Overseas Foreign Workers). I surely missed the gang and I was imagining that they were also here having some drinks and spending late nights chatting at the railings of the bridge.

That bridge was a silent witness to our growing up and if it can only speak, it can tell every detail of our childhood and secrets that we friends shared during those years. The bridge was the first thing that  I have noticed upon arrival and I took no time to stand right there and be transported in a flurry of memories. How time flies. I wish someday everyone will be home and together reminisce the laughter and yes, some tears for those growing up stuff like being scolded by parents, dumped by a girl and school problems.

 In the river below the bridge, we use to share the once pristine waters with the carabaos. While they huddle and keep cool at the shallow waters at the side, we little boys and girls are having a blast trying to swim. We learned swimming at the river all on our own without the aid of instructors and we also had our own shares of some life threatening situations by trying to swim without supervision. Those situations though very dangerous have made us strong and we learned to value life at a very early age.

It is my dream that someday, we childhood buddies will group together at the bridge and do a reminiscing of the wonderful past and on a broader context give our share in restoring the river to its glory days and to have a name for the bridge which until now is unknown to us.