"Kim is born in October 2000 in Cebu City, Philippines and has lived their till he was eight years old. Kim started singing already when he was only 3 years old and has since that time won several local singing contests.
That time Kim never experienced to have singing lesson and learned everything from his mother Mabel.
In 2008 Kim left, together with his sister and mother, the Philippines to live with his father in Holland."
Here's his rendition of one of my favorite songs, My Girl
The title sounds weird, but this is going to be one of those cloudy day but still happy posts.
The upside is yes, I'm glad because I got my $202.97 USD from Google yesterday!
Yay Me!!!
I went to the Western Union branch at the second floor of Robinsons Mall in Lipa City, filled out a form, gave my MTCN number along with identification to the pretty lady behind the counter. I left out a few details on the form since I didn't know what to write on the field where it says, "The Sender is My _________"
"Master" "Money bag" "Benefactor"
"Employer" - Hmmm, maybe... Something like that. Yes.
The amount is bigger because apparently, the amount that I didn't get from the first check which was lost, was carried over to this pay date. Hence 100* + 102.97* = $202.97.
So that's what happens when you lose your Adsense check. Good thing I shifted to Western Union as a payment mode.
I'm very close to my personal goal of earning $1.00 a day in Adsense revenue. Thanks to your support.
The lady at the Western Union branch in Robinsons was really excited, "You really get paid by Google? Wow."
I just smiled. Her male companion then added that in Western Union everything from Google starts with an MTCN number beginning with 000.
She then told me that she once tried freelance writing and that it was difficult. I told her, that the pay in freelance writing is actually higher, since you get paid per word and article rather than per clicks or impressions. I really should get started with those calling cards.
Dealing with a Negative WOT rating (Web of Trust)
The WOT rating and also browser extension (firefox and chrome) is a rating system that grades the performance of your website according to ratings provided by users. Here, a site gets rated according to:
Trustworthiness
Vendor reliability
Privacy
Child Safety
Dannybuntu.com has been rated negatively, I don't know why and I feel bad about it since I feel that what I've written here are mostly my personal experiences and I am a fairly honest person.
Proof: When I was about 5-7 years old (recalling exact dates is not my thing), my dad tested me (he liked those mind games - he was a lawyer). We passed by a candy shop where you could easily grab lots of colorful gummy bears and other colorful treats. Then he told me, "Danny, get some of that candy. See, I'll talk to the lady to distract her while you get some."
Long story short, I didn't get the candy even though I would later on find out that my dad already paid for it before he asked me.
Another proof: You know those employment bonds that bind you to a company for 6 months which nobody really pays once they voluntarily resign before the end of the contract?
Well, I paid mine. I paid 50,000 pesos to my former employer, the Bank of the Philippine Islands when I resigned back then. That is how honest I am.
Sooooo, back to my Web of Trust rating. It's negative and so I'm deemed to be untrustworthy. At the onset, it was, is frustrating. It's like watching a blot on your good record to see that you have a failing grade just because somebody doesn't like you.
I felt compelled to join WOT and install their meta tag on my site, which I did.
Then request for a site evaluation, which I will now do.
They'll also ask for other information like - and I will copy paste:
Do you have a visible privacy policy on your website?: * If you provide a way for users to communicate with you if they experience problems with your site / service, then provide the url: Both of which I have,
Some people say that you should also put a telephone number as it has some SEO mumbo jumbo effect, but I've tried that and just got super spooky phone calls in the middle of the night with - heavy breathing... Ugh..
Anyway, here's to hoping for the best. May we all get paid at least $4 a day in Google Adsense Revenue so that we can cash in every month. May our WOT ratings be Green.
One of my qualms about living here in the provinces is the big problem of garbage collection. I don't know about the rest of the barangays here in the City of Lipa, but for us here in Barangay Tangway, garbage collection is virtually zero.
It's your problem to dispose of it.
My family of 7 consumes a hefty amount of plastic from goods that we buy in the groceries and the market. Although there's been a ban on plastic bags for all commercial establishments - certain exceptions seem to be making the rounds of the city.
For example, convenience stores specially in the market can still package the goods you bought provided that the plastic used are the "handle-less" type of clear plastics. It's a stupid exception, but I think much of that has to do with matigas na ulo of traders and market vendors.
Plastic is plastic, period.
For our part, we bought the reusable eco-bags and bring them to Robinson's Lipa whenever we do the groceries. But there's still a lot of plastic around. Almost every consumer good is packaged in plastic. From cooking oil, noodles, soy sauce, vinegar, fish sauce, flavors and meat are still packaged in plastic.
On second thought, that may have been the origin of the exception. People still haven't gotten around to packaging meat aside from plastic. Some vendors might have pointed this out, and hence clear plastics got a go signal.
Temporary Solutions Our temporary solution is to segregate plastic garbage and then bury it under the ground. Even then, our dump is slowly becoming bigger - creating our own mini-dumpsite. For now, incineration is still the only logical and feasible way to dispose of garbage. Our situation is even unique because we have plenty of space to do so. Our neighbors, which typically have smaller lots have no choice but to burn garbage.
I Still Support the No Burning Garbage Policy...BUT I totally support the DENR and wish to see a future where nobody burns garbage, but it has to be done and enforced in a way that provides a suitable and free of cost way to ordinary citizens. It's easier to follow the law that the government creates if it has already provided a solution to the problem and has not encumbered ordinary citizens with the task of figuring it out for themselves.
Admittedly, we also burn garbage but we try to keep it at a minimum of once every week - every Saturday to be precise.
Parang jaywalking, less people would jaywalk if there are pedestrian overpasses and even more people would use the overpass if it has an escalator.
Update: Oct. 12, 2012 Lipa City Today, we had to send one of my daughters to the doctor because of incessant coughing and colds. It could be a combination of factors from the onset of the cold season to our relocated neighbors' continuous burning of garbage. Some of them actually say that it's their 3 o clock habit - to ward off mosquitoes with the smoke to prevent Dengue. Since our large lot is adjacent to several households - about 15, when it's 3 PM - all of them start smoking.
My daughter has been diagnosed with Bronchitis and speaking with some Barangay officials to complain about the incessant burning led me to the dead end - that there are no funds for garbage collection. This despite the fact that Lipa City is earning quite a bit from tax revenue from the new malls: SM Lipa City, Robinsons Mall, and Fiesta Mall.
So why is there no garbage collection facility in some barangays here in Lipa?
Research: I searched on Google for some answers and it led me to quite a bit of sad quandary - many people already know about the garbage situation here in Lipa City - but it appears that there are no funds for garbage trucks.
I will copy and paste some information here:
The Community-based Solid Waste Management Project in Sitio San Nicolas 1 1. Lipa City’s Solid Waste Management Problem Solid waste is the most visible of Lipa’s environmental problems such that the Mayor considered its solution as one the flagship programs of her administration. The Environmental Profile and the City Environmental Consultation in November 1999 identified the causes of the problem as:
The increase in solid waste generation due to rapid industrialization and urbanization of the city;
The un-segregated waste dumped by residents and commuters in the main roads, creeks, rivers, and vacant lots;
The prevalence of burning of garbage in the city proper;
The absence of material recovery facility in most of the urban barangays due to unavailability of vacant lots;
The ineffective enforcement of local sanitation ordinances and national environmental laws on solid waste management and
The absence of available site for controlled dump facility and eventually for sanitary landfill.
Furthermore, I stumbled upon some sort of petition grant for a garbage truck started by the Rotary Club of Lipa City. Over at this website: http://matchinggrants.org/grant2412.html
This project aims to grant a reconditioned dump truck that will serve as a wheel for proper trash/garbage collection and disposal in several barangays of Lipa City, Batangas. This will benefit more than 600 to 800 families in the locality. Long term effect would be a clean healthy and friendly environment not only for the local community but for the travelers as well. This will diminish several community-acquired diseases associated with dirty environment which serves as good breeding places for mosquitoes, rodents, flies and cockroaches causing dengue fever, malaria, leptospirosis intestinal parasitism and other respiratory diseases respectively.
Proposed project implementation will take at least 3 to 4 months once funds are available.
Why does the Rotary Club of Lipa City have to ask for donations? Isn't this the job of the City Government of Lipa?
More Temporary Solutions According to several sources and a NASA study on plants that improve indoor air quality, If done in a correct way, cleaner air could be manufactured. Watch the TED talks video:
Since I am beginning to spend quite a few hours of my life playing #DCUniverseonline - an awesome Free to Play MMORPG from Sony Online Entertainment, I might as well be productive and make something out of it. I'm trying to turn the game and my character into a mini comic book.
With its public testing this summer of its in-house designed driverless car system, Google has brought the next level of automotive technology directly to our computer screens while automotive manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in the idea of empty cars cruising the streets.
While we may be a way off from busy roads without drivers, there can be no denying that autonomous vehicles are coming sooner than most consumers ever expected and understanding the technologies behind them is the first step towards adoption. Whether you plan to send your car out to pick up dinner without you as soon as possible or you want to know what types of cars to avoid with caution while driving given their lack of a human driver, here are four infographics and videos to better understand driverless cars:
Imagining a future where distracted driving and accidental deaths are a thing of the past is one thing; developing technologies to make it happen is another altogether. Those technologies are outlined beautifully in this infographic, with accompanying diagrams and explanations making the job of learning a simple one for any viewer.
The second half of the infographic highlights exactly why driverless cars are so important to humanity at large, showcasing the 450,000 injuries and $230 billion per year in losses generated each year in the United States due to distracted driving. With their promise to eliminate the need to drive when one doesn't have the time for it, driverless cars could potentially end distracted driving altogether.
The best way to understand the technology behind driverless cars is to see it in action and Google recently released a video that showcases the car they've been working on. The action follows a legally blind man who quickly jumps behind the wheel, stopping by a laundromat and passing through a fast food drive-thru window before returning home, all without touching the wheel or needing to watch the road.
Given that the concept still feels very futuristic and remote to many people, this video serves as the ultimate tool in simply reminding us that, not only is it possible, it's here now.
Did you know that driverless vehicles created by Google have driven more than 1,000 hours on the open road with no human intervention and more than 140,000 hours with minimal human intervention? Given just how close this technology is to our driveways, this infographic takes a look at some of the real world effects that are likely to be seen as driverless vehicles become mainstream. Out-of-work taxi drivers, lost revenue for governments, the elimination of parking fees, increased free time - the list goes on.
The most important statistics offered here revolve around safety, showing once again just how effective driverless cars could be in reducing human injury and damages due to car accidents caused by driver distraction.
Google's Sebastian Thrun, one of the lead developers in the team that helped to build Google's driverless car prototypes and an award-winning computer scientist and educator, paid a visit to TED Talks to give a quick lecture on autonomous vehicles in general and Google's efforts in that field in particular.
Included in the video is footage of Google's vehicles cruising through urban streets, taking turns and making stops without the need for human intervention, an amazing testament to just how close driverless cars are to appearing in the consumer marketplace.
There are so many banana varieties here in the tropical Philippines and there are as many dishes you could make with it. No wonder, people used to refer to our country as a Banana Republic. But of course, that's no longer the case.
If you have a small garden at home, with a space of at least 3 square meters of soil, you can have your very own cluster of banana trees. There's no need to fertilize it for as long as your soil still has some nutrients - rainwater and plenty of sunshine make banana trees really happy.
More than that, banana trees are one of the easiest to plant and learn how to cultivate.
Everyday, we get to hear loud thuds hitting the ground. When we first moved here, we thought wow! Free coconuts! In Manila, coconuts go for P20 each or roughly $0.50 US.
Anyway, after our coco craze has waned (took us 3 years), some of these guys became slightly annoying and some, dangerous.
Getting hit with one of these could send you to the ICU or worst - Funeraria La Something.
So, you should do well to always be on the lookout for cracking sounds from high above and get in the habit of ducking for cover. Better yet, don't stay under a tree for long periods of time.
Adopt Pet Coconut Seedlings or Plants
Coconut seedlings ready to be transferred to their own bags
A few weeks ago, I decided to get the kids to love plants, after all they're living er - creatures too. What better way than to call these plants - pet plants. Now, three of my daughters have their own potted Sans Severias. No pics yet, since they're not overly pretty, but once they've grown, I'll post them.
Then I thought, maybe I'd share the love for plants with others and I'll start with these rambunctious coconuts. So if you feel like you'd like to have your own pet coconut plant - feel free to make an inquiry or contact me. No deliveries, only for pickup.
Adopt a Pet coconut en masse for your real life farmville and I'll even treat you to free Barako Coffee.
Thought of the day: One of the most terrifying things in the world are babies. It's one thing to make em, it's another thing to have life squiggling - and pooping on your arms. It's a brand new life on the same level as yours and you - yes you, are in charge of it. Anything that can and will go wrong falls entirely on your shoulder - for life. Anything that goes right, you only take partial credit for.
Business opportunities in the Philippines on Sulit.com.ph
As I have mentioned previously, hunting for business opportunities on sulit.com.ph is one of my favorite hobbies - that aside from playing America's Army 3 on Bridge AI Map, planting gabi, luya and malunggay.
Though sulit.com.ph is replete with MLM, Networking, "Online Business", food cart, franchising and Eloading schemes in their business opportunities section - occasionally, you do find gems in the rough.
These are tied to real world businesses that produce actual products that's not composed of a mish mash of foreign sounding leaves or roots ground together and packaged with shiny plastic then consequently applied to your face - or underarm. (Yes, I'm talking to you Barley leaf, stem, root or whatever... God, you can find them everywhere...)
You buy it for PHP 1,500 per sack, repack it, then sold to Sari-sari stores or the grocery for a projected profit of PHP1,500 per 15 kg. sack. Easy as 1-2-3.
I've inquired with the seller on this one, but I do have some concerns about logistics. They're in Quezon City. I'm in Lipa City, Batangas.
Not really a business opportunity per se, it does provide additional income possibilities or money saving knowledge for anyone who's into events planning, catering, restaurant, flower arrangement or even the photography business.
Most of these business are tied up to each other so partnering with a supplier could help you save some time if you haven't done so already.
What I'm Really Looking For Agribusiness opportunities. Most of the existing opportunities in the Philippines you can find advertised online - not just in sulit.com.ph but also in most websites - are sideline businesses that don't need a lot of work, sweat, capital (I even saw one that claims to turn your PHP 100 to 100,000,000.)
Agribusiness and related propositions are quite hard to find and market - because of 3 requirements that not many people have or are willing to give - land, financial capital and heartbreaking sweat.
Having 2 of these 3, namely, land and sweat, I'm still groping the marketing aspects. Right now, I have 300 luya plants on the ground waiting to grow and 60 gabi plants that need sunshine. We have an inventory of hundreds of sans severia plants, 300 mahogany trees, a few bayabas trees and 1 Staghorn fern that I haven't got a clue on how to propagate.
Do take a look at our agribusiness experiment over at Resort-ville.com.
Right now, I'm still brainstorming on how I can turn these plants into money. Sell em? Yeah, sure, our location is killing us and we can't afford to lease in downtown and compete with the pros.
Online? Now there's a thought. Shipping and logistics is going to be quite troublesome though. I don't have transportation.
If you think you can solve my problem, do feel free to contact me over here:
It's 2:49 AM and I cannot sleep. A lot of things have been running around my mind for a while and I haven't been able to post much for the last month - or maybe even longer. I've lost track of my blogging time. I've put a pause on hosting guest bloggers because hosting guest bloggers is like hosting real guests. You have to be pleasant, nice and treat them as VIPs. It takes a lot of brain time and is a huge energy drain to an introvert like me.
Blog Convention Philippines Venue - I know that it's a weird post title. But it's something that suddenly crossed my mind after I visited Google Plus and saw the campaign of a Google Plus acquaintance.
There are a lot of successful - "moneywise" and "exposure-wise" Filipino bloggers in the Philippines, (I'm not one of them) but most of them still belong to an elite cadre of English speaking, SEO toting, marketing and politically related bloggers in Metro Manila.
I'm still brainstorming the idea and tomorrow I have to plant gabi, but anyway, I have to think of ways to stimulate activity here on Resort-ville.com aside from farming. The physical work is draining my intellectual, emotional and psychological energy and maybe this is it.
Offer a venue for a blog convention or marketing push for free - as in walang bayad na pera na pesos.
Yes, there is a catch - 3 I can think of actually.
1. The place is nothing like it used to look like.
It used to look like this: http://www.resort-for-sale.com. Now - it's a jungle ruin and the pool is not operational. To be frank, I would need 15,000 pesos a month to run the pool again. Soooooooo.... :/
But, I can clean up the critical parts and prepare for something with some expenditure.
2. It's quite secluded - but it really is accessible.
