31.8.05

cool website address tricks

can anyone guess what the 466453.com contains?

when you've checked the site, check this link out for more info on this crazy stunt. :)

30.8.05

Chinese grassroots exploration

i'm thinking of reviewing my conversational Mandarin, and i believe Pinyin (alphabet method of Chinese input/representation) has rapidly gained acceptance in learning, in my opinion.

so here is a site you can use to review and learn bits of Chinese. hopefully i can teach someone more Chinese with this in the coming days. :)

the relationship of post and visit frequency

for personal blogs like mine, there's a standing belief that there's a direct correlation between the two: the more posts, the more hits, since you generate more visitors that way.

i'm beginning to realise that it doesn't always work that way, though. for example, a huge majority of my hits in recent memory came from a searches on the web, in particular, from my (in)famous kwek-kwek recipe to the Gloriagate scandal. perhaps, the correlation doesn't quite hold true because, in order to gain a following, you have to be able to create posts that have meaning and substance, and you think people are going to be looking for online. the post frequency helps get better search engine "visibility", i reckon.

anyway, i'm no guru when it comes to getting hits or readership or anything. i just like writing. everything else shouldn't get in the way of that.

22.8.05

Church MIDI nugget

i came across this link via a good friend from the choir, and this is really wonderful - sort of like a large cup of warm chocolate with milk and marshmallows in a cool, rainy summer afternoon; an instrumentalist's dream come true!

20.8.05

almost caught!

last night as i fetched my sister from her gimik, thinking that i wasn't doing anything wrong, i decided to take a U-turn on a red light somewhere within the Makati area at around 11pm.

boy was i wrong.

i was flagged down by a pair of cops immediately. and since i saw a motorcycle with them, i figured it would be pointless for me to attempt to elude them. so i pulled over, and after failing to negotiate not having to get my license, went through some 20-30 minutes trying to convince the guys not to issue me a ticket for not following the road signs. i was really pushing my luck on that, since i was wearing my standard fare pambahay attire of shirt, shorts and slippers, i figured that they could probably hold me in violation of not being in proper attire (the slippers, FYI, are supposed to be illegal for drivers). i went on about having taken that route before, about it being late already, about it being my first offense, about how i had to drive all the way back to Marikina. i was almost at my knees begging!

and thankfully, the cops let me off. whew! a big THANK YOU to those cops...

on another note, i'm about to embark on another change for my blog. i think i'm beginning to outgrow my current setup. i need categorization for my blogs... i'll work on it over the next few days, or whenever time permits it.

18.8.05

busy bee

i've been a busy bee for the past couple of days, which is having a direct impact on the number and quality of posts here in my blog.

ahh, well. i'll try to make up for lost ground as soon as i hit it running.

13.8.05

creative shots

Jay has been telling and showing me all sorts of pictures he's taken with his digicam so far (on his blog and from his camera), so i sort of took it on myself to get my own digicam (a trusty Canon Powershot A40, which i still love) and make my own.

it's interesting that i've only bothered to toy around with the Program and Manual modes of my camera recently, and something that i should have started doing a long time ago. oh well, there's still hope for me. as i get around to it, i'll be posting my pictures over at Yahoo, which i've also handily put at the top of my link list, for anyone who might care to look, and i'll be consolidating my creative shots over at Flickr sometime, when i get around to it.

feel free to comment on any of my pics. have fun browsing. :)

10.8.05

Makati explorations

since i walk to work from DasmariƱas Village all the way to H. V. Dela Costa every Wednesday, i thought i'd try looking for an alternative route today. so i saw these jeepneys and figured that they'll probably reach my destination one way or the other. but i was so wrong. i found myself on Buendia minutes afterwards, leaving me no choice but to take a P40 cab ride to the office.

lesson learned: ask before you make a move.

9.8.05

steamy!

there are many firsts in my life that i will remember for the rest of my life... like last night, when my car overheated. my car looked like it was a rice cooker just waiting to blow its cap off!

thankfully i managed to roll the car to my dad's office after coaxing it to inch its way from Makati all the way to Pasig, having to stop a few times on the curb on the way. at least my dad's there to help me - he'll be taking the car to the car shop near his office later.

the damage report? a broken auxilliary fan and a busted radiator - had to have them replaced completely. i also mentioned to my dad that i wanted my shock absorbers replaced too, since they've been causing me all the alignment problems i've been having with the car. hopefully they'll be done by the end of the day. and hopefully they won't cost me an arm and a limb.

8.8.05

some fun links to visit

want to look like a ninja? here's how!

and do you want to do some cool-looking paper crafts? Yamaha has some on this site. UPDATE: Canon also has some here! heck i can probably do so much when i find enough time...

now these will be great things to put on my computer monitor. :)

7.8.05

phone repairs

i managed to get my T610 to a state where it refused to recharge my battery any more (it's amazing how i've survived for the past week!), so i took my unit to Semicon to have it serviced.

the cost:
system connector (that row of copper strips at the bottom of the unit) - P63
service charge - P500

crazy? you bet. oh as my friend commented, "good work is hard to fine". :P

3.8.05

on top blogs and podcasts

i've now added Jay's Artichoke Adobo, in the hopes that my readers would be kind enough to visit it and vote for it on the Pinoy Top Blogs. hmm... maybe i should take that route too... maybe it will help generate more hits for me (of which i'm averaging ~5 a day).

also, i've been listening to some podcasts from Live from USA.Philippines, hosted by Kid Flash X (of rickey.org) and ManongGuard (again, of Artichoke Adobo). it's interesting to note that they (according to Jay) used to have this small-time radio show back in UP Diliman called "Live in the Bahamas" (correct me if i'm wrong). and it's really fun to hear them get all worked up on video games, politics, Care Bears, and even tea (recently)! and i agree with one of their statements in their most recent podcast, talking about niche targeting. even my blog is a bit niche-y (to a higher degree of nichness at times i suppose). i hope everyone here takes a cue and listens in to their shows some time.

well, one thing's for sure though, it sure made walking to work so much more insane today as i grinned every few minutes while listening to them.