New Followers

Oh, I wonder if I should be glad for having so many followers lately. When I check and look at their sites, either there is only one follower or just one or two with one blog post. Some are even blank.

I don’t want to be choosy but I want someone I could interact with or someone who comments on my blog posts. Come to think of it, they follow you but there is nothing there that would let you know whether they like your posts or not. I always acknowledge those who follow and read their posts too and I click ” follow” when I find their sites interesting.

I click Discover every now and then and I visit the blogs of those who interest me. Lucky to find them following me back.

I’ve used the Jetpack prompts three times already and I earned lots of views on the very first one I wrote about. Not all topics are worth-writing about. I earned sizable views yesterday (439 total) when they looked and read a previous post I wrote back in 2011 entitled Happy Hearts Day. Curious about love day? It does not mean that the V-day is only for lovers, it’s a celebration for everyone who loves life – friends, siblings, grandparents, grandkids and every one in the family.

I started writing daily since the year started. WordPress says I am on my 16th day this month of February. Hooray to blogging❤👨‍💻💐

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Erratic

Our wifi connection has been very unpredictable since last night. All of a sudden, it will be off then about an hour or two, it would be on again. I don’t know what is happening to Globe, our service provider.

The usual thing is, we won’t have internet connection for almost two days when there is a scheduled maintenance. Jovy and Josef have internet on their phones because they don’t rely solely on our subscription here at the house. So when, there is no internet, I am offline too. I am using prepaid plans for my two tabs and cellphone. It is more convenient for me than using a postpaid plan because I usually don ‘t bring my cellphone when I am out. One tab is enough.

Would have wanted to write a post early. I clearly forgot what was playing in my head a few hours ago. Getting old☺

Read Full Post »

My 700th Blog After 29 Months Of Blogging

Reposting this blog I wrote back in November 3, 2011. Most of you here were not yet my friends then but I had a few followers I lost touch with over the years.

When I look back at the times that I felt so down, writing my thoughts on paper helped me to cope, a sort of  catharsis for me since I found out I had Stage 3 colon cancer. It was not a walk in the park  but faith , prayers and love of friends and family made me realize  that when you have all these, you have enough. When you believe that you will get well, you will. And when you believe that God is by your side, He is.

So this is my 700th blog according to WordPress. Since they have introduced letting bloggers know which post was magnificent, grand, dandy, splendid, sensational, fabulous,far-out, groovy, slick, superb, super, wohoo, way-out and all the other positive words they say about a current blog post, I’ve recorded every word count and which post describes all those words. It’s kind of fun to know what word they will use to describe what you have just posted. At the start of the year, I was in a quandary whether to take part in the Post A Day Challenge 2011. I asked myself, “will I be able to do that, write and blog everyday the whole year of 2011? “ Two more months to go and I will be able to say, “I did it.” And George S. Patton was right when he said and I quote: Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.

I was reviewing my earlier blogs this morning and I was smiling like crazy thinking, I was a little emotional in some of them but who cares, it’s the process of writing that heals you. And I would like to share a list of at least twenty-five top-rated blogs that I wrote in a span of twenty-nine months. They are not exactly my favorites since there are other blogs which I like better than some of them,  echoing what I feel and describing the true “me”. But the following are my most read, obviously for the simple reason that they frequently appear even if I wrote them a year or almost two years ago. You are welcome to read through my search box since I don’t exactly remember  when they were published here.

1. Homepage
2. The Early Bird Catches The Worm But the Second Mouse Gets The Cheese
3. UAAP Season 73 (University of Santo Tomas)
4. Friendship Quotes
5. Soulmates, Karma, Reincarnation
6. Unang Taon, Ulat Sa Bayan Ni PNoy (June 30, 2011)
7. Happy Birthday MAMA MARY
8. Dapitan Arcade (A Shopper’s Delight)
9. It’s Why I Love It
10. University of Santo Tomas at 400
11. On Meeting Dr. Samuel Ang Again
12. The Aquino Grandchildren And My Own Memories of Ninoy
13. Bank Of The Philippine Islands, Let’s Make It Easy
14. Suha,Lukban, Grapefruit, Pomelo
15. The Famous Transfiguration Chapel – Caleruega, Philippines
16. Oh, Oh!
17. Quotes To Live By
18. It’s Kung Pao Chicken Pasta For Dinner
19. Some Tidbits On Pres. Noynoy’s Inauguration
20. Moringa Juice
21. Sioma-making, A Great Feat For A Six-Year Old
22. Celebrating 400th Year (University of Santo Tomas)
23. Meeting Manuel Baldemor, A World-Renowned Artist
24. New Life, New Hope, New Beginning
25. Special Palabok

Thank you all for visiting my blog and leaving lovely comments. Hooray to blogging! And WordPress says, this blog is wonderful😀

Read Full Post »

Tuesday Comes

6:30 am is still dark and cold. It ‘s only Noki who is outside in the garden. Waiting for the water to boil for my morning fix of either coffee or tea. I don ‘t use sugar anymore with my morning cup of coffee, I use a small packet of green Stevia instead. Just perfect for two pieces of rich tea biscuits. I wanna learn to drink coffee without sweetening it. Nissa says it is easy to adjust.

I blogged about my Insulin plant a couple of days ago and posted a photo at my garden blog. Would you believe, it produced two more flowers and another is about to show its face. For three consecutive days now, I eat the leaves raw. Just need to wash it well. I don’t even use fertilizer, chemical or otherwise so it is safe to eat fresh. Some people boil the leaves for tea. I haven’t tried it yet.

Saw some previous posts years ago that were visited by some viewers. I clicked the comments button and there appeared my online friends here on WordPress who have stopped blogging, many as long as three or two years ago. They have vanished and simply stopped blogging.

I agree that creating content is hard enough especially when you haven’t written anything for a long time. Although you have lots to write about, you don’t know how to start. That happens to me most of the time when I am hooked reading and blogging goes to the back seat. Now that I am blogging every day, it is somehow easier to write.

Read Full Post »

Blogging

What’s happening WordPress? I could not see uploaded photos and cannot even comment? Why?

Read Full Post »

662,919 Views And 3,288 Posts Later

I have clearly forgotten those lovely thoughts that I wrote years ago when I was just beginning to write posts at WordPress during my journey as a cancer patient and survivor. If I were to add all my blog posts at my four other sites, it might reach 700, 000 views and maybe 4,000 posts. That year-long journey triggered and inspired me to blog at WordPress. I was so happy reaching out to those with similar journey like I did.

Blogging has become a way of life just as reading does. I used to blog almost every day but over the years, posting one once or twice a week is now enough for me. Over the past two years during this pandemic, everything seemed to be at a stand still. I’ve only gone out five times from our subdivision. No visitors came over except Nissa’s family. Food and groceries were delivered. Even the Christmas gifts were ordered online. Hopefully, this pandemic will end soon.

Finally done with trimming the carabao grass with Josef’s help. We still need though to have the garden outside our perimeter wall cleaned. Our tree dogs sleep in the garage while Nikki, who has just given birth to three male pups is in a cage in our dirty kitchen. She is so protective of her litters.

The past few nights, I compared all the books I had on my tab with Goodreads. Good thing I have a virtual library there. I have read some of them the past few years. It’s funny, I used to write a brief review of the books I read before. I got lazy though since I started this year’s reading challenge. I am looking for more authors and books to read.

I don’t get to visit my friends’ blogs every day because I don’t visit WordPress that often. So sorry about that, will catch up soon.

By the way, it’s CHRISTMAS in nine days.

Read Full Post »

On Death And Dying

I don’t know what is happening. Everyday on my newsfeed on Facebook, I see death all around. Today, it was the former secretary of DSWD (Department of Social Wefare and Development). The other day, a professor from UST died, a few days ago, a student and a nurse died too. I wonder if all of these were caused by Covid because sometimes, the news does not mention it.

I was listening to Fr. Aly’s homily this morning. He told the parishioners about the importance of these Covid vaccines. Not everyone is sure that the pandemic won’t catch up even if we are fully jabbed. I remember my exchange of thoughts with my friend from Canada who told me the news of Fr.Eli’s death a week ago. She said that if the former was vaccinated, it could have triggered his death. He was operated on a few years ago and had a pacemaker. Then she sent those articles that vaccines are not safe. I got confused so I asked if she and her husband were vaccinated. She said at the end of our conversation that it is not polite to ask that question. She told me it is a private choice. More confused.

Going back to Fr. Aly’s homily, he said that one doesn’t know if she/he would be affected. A strong immunity is very important. I agree. Mostly, those hospitalized haven’t been vaccinated yet. There are people who are found positive of Covid even if they are fully vaccinated. Where do we go from here? How long will we have to endure before this pandemic is out of our lives for good?

Morbid you say? I guess it’s not.

Read Full Post »

Ah, Blogging

I was reviewing some of my old posts back in 2014 when likes and comments were quite nil. Most of you who are now regular followers and commenters at my site were not yet in the picture.

I have been blogging for so long now, 12 years more or less that sometimes I think I have written about every subject close to my heart. There were only two challenges I participated in which were initiated by WordPress, the 2011 Post A Day Challenge and the Weekly Photo Challenge around 2014 or thereafter. I enjoyed both, finishing more than 365 posts in one year. Those were real challenges indeed. I was new to blogging and I was inspired. I kept saying that when you blog everyday, everything comes easy. WordPress encouraged me when they would say a few words after every blog – that was where I encountered the words beautiful, fascinating, inspiring, keep it up and such. Then you would see how many posts you have done. That was why I was so proud when I reached my 1,000th post and blogged about it. I wonder where my badge got to. In Dreams and Escapes alone, I now have 3,209 posts including this one.

When they introduced Weekly Photo Challenge, I got more excited. It was my chance to share pictures I took on my Canon camera. They were all in high resolution shots. I didn’t realize that they ate up most of my limited free space so I created another mostly for photos and one about gardening. When Nate was born, I made a separate one for him too.

Blogging!

Some close friends are urging me to compile those inspirational ones into a book. Just thinking of it is hard enough. I found two venues though when I got appointed to be one of the admins of two private Catholic groups at Facebook. I post mostly morning thoughts and my own prayers which I wrote here years ago. That is fulfilling for me, I gained more friends in the process. That is why, I am reviewing my old posts and taking note of the titles and date published so I could go back when I decide to share them.

I’ve always said that if you could touch one soul out there through your writings, then it would be enough.

Read Full Post »

Hey, I’m Back

Can’t believe that for exactly eleven days, I haven’t written anything here. I think I lost my muse. No other reason but being so engrossed reading. And when you haven’t blogged for a while, it is quite hard to start again.

Last night, I finished my 49th read. Lately, I was so engrossed in thrillers and historical fiction. I recently followed a series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Remember the character Pendergast? That is if you are familiar with their books.

I miss writing on a PC. It’s been a while. Since this tab would not let me see my dashboard, I wonder how many posts I’ve done so far. The last time I looked several months ago, it already reached more than 3,000 posts on this blog alone. It always asks me to log in but when I do, I could not get to the site.

Vaccinations for senior citizens have just started this week. Per barangay, alphabetical listings too per database they have of all senior citizens in our town. I’ll probably get vaccinated next week. They told us we’ll have the Astra Zeneca vaccine. Has anyone of you been vaccinated with this?

It is mom’s 92nd birthday on April 20, that’s next week. I asked Fr. Pao if he could include her in his prayers. I attended an online mass which he presided early this morning.

Have a blessed week ahead. Keep safe my friends.

Read Full Post »

13th Year

Hello guys. Good morning.

Yesterday, I received a congratulatory message from WordPress. Thirteen years ago, I opened an account here upon the recommendation of a friend from Multiply.

I tried creating one of course but all I posted was a pathetic single poem from my journal. It took me more than a year to come back and learned how to customize it. I chose a free theme and I am still using one until now. It would take maybe a year or two more to utilize it fully.

I started actually posting and transferring some posts from Friendster and Multiply back in May 2009, a few days after I learned that I had to undergo the inevitable sigmoidoscopy. Back then, the result of my colonoscopy was not good. To cut the story short, my surgical oncologist removed about nine inches of my colon. I started chemo a month after, six sessions of pain and distress for almost half a year.

I have to look for something that would occupy my empty days aside from reading. I have to give up gardening for almost a year. So I thought of visiting my account at WordPress and learn everything from there.

Do you remember how you started? I got a measly ten visits and two followers almost a month after. It was only when I braved myself to join WordPress’ Post A Day Challenge that my blog was noticed by a few. That was ten years ago and the rest is history now.

I gained new online friends, fellow bloggers who were just starting too. Some of them I still follow until now and they had followed me back. Some got lost in cyberspace, stopped blogging and even deleted their accounts.

I don’t really know why some people follow you but you can’t even hear from them. No likes, no comments, no whatsoever. Some of course expect that you follow them back. It’s not an automatic response from me.

If I have to count those active bloggers who I exchange ideas and comments with, fifty would be a lucky number. One thing though, I found true friends here, learned a lot from their posts, admired the photos they shared, admired the reviews of books they have read and I was inspired by their posts on different subjects. Travelling without leaving your corner, seeing a slice of the world we live in.

So it’s my 13th year. I congratulate myself that I reached this far.

Read Full Post »