Generally, I’m not very bothered by filler arcs. It’s not a bad way of seeing more of the characters, right? So what if it diverts away from canon?

Well… This particular arc in One Piece really drove my patience insane.

There was nothing more for me to want that for the filler to end and for them to continue with the next story…

But… I resisted the urge to skip, and still pushed forward.

Thank goodness it’s over…

I haven’t designed a decent web page in a while, and although I can still whip up a few good designs, I have gotten rusty on the coding that is needed to make it work.

I used to design a page using tables and images, however, the standards on web design require the use of Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS.

Frankly, I wasn’t very good at it for layouts.  I used to create CSS codes with cheat sheets. I couldn’t type up a decent page without the needed elemental codes.  Well, looking back on it, isn’t that how we learn?

Anyway, the most that I could go with CSS was to give hyperlinks those nifty hover effects, or at least modify font colors.

Imagine my hardship from shifting my perspective from table layouts to one that uses CSS.  It was a lot of hard work.

A year ago, I was able to modify/create the theme that I am using for the website with the wordpress system.  It was hell, and a ton of trial and error.

I barely did anything to the CSS because there were a lot of declared definitions that I could barely understood where it went.  I did a ton of nitpicking…

Anyway, I managed to practice a CSS-designed page today, and my earlier frustration at not getting what I wanted was somehow forgotten when I got a desirable result.  Though it ain’t perfect, at least I’m practicing my skill.

Use it or lose it, so they say.

See you around.

I wasn’t very successful with taking photos last year, so I decided that I will remedy that and be more dedicated this year.

Armed with my point-and-shoot HP camera, I tried my best to capture what I can with the equipment that I have.  I can’t help but feel a bit jealous of the other photographers in the area who were carrying large DSLR cameras… but there’s nothing I can do at the moment, so I just had to make best use of what I had.

Voyadores and on-lookers rushing towards the image of Penafrancia

Image of the Peñafrancia, as confetti falls from a building. I really had to go up close on this one, and squeezed through a lot of people. The heat was intense.

A child waits in anticipation of the image, despite the view being covered by taller adults in front. This is in a much safer corner, though...

That may look like a lot of people, but it gets even more crowded as the image gets closer.

A photograph of a photographer taking a picture of photographers that are taking pictures above. (Do we need to go deeper?)

More people.

A child carried by her father so she can have a better view.

People applauds and waves their handkerchiefs, and shout out "Viva La Virgen" as the image comes closer

Some people are very determined to touch the image during the procession. it is a very hard challenge... which the church does not approve of

And you thought you only see these in concerts, eh?

I can't seem to get a good shot on how to show the quantity of people...

The closest shot that I could manage. I sort of like how that priest looks like he's doing somethin important up there...

A group of men exiting the church after delivering the image.

Two men climbing up the walls of the church to be able to enter the much crowded area easily instead of going through the normal gate filled with people.

I was not able to get shots during the mass for the lighting was very low… and all I got were blurry images.  The lighting would have been wonderful though. A tripod would have been useful, but the number of people around you makes it useless… You will not be able to find a spot to place it, hahaha…

Well, this just marks the start of the festivities. I hope you liked my pictures.

Monday and Tuesday this week I was out of commission due to sickness.

It wasn’t fun. I even can’t draw acceptable stuff lately. Hmm…

In any case, I’m sort of back to normal and getting things back together.

What have I been up to? In the past few times that I haven’t updated here… A lot.

One of the important things that I have done is that I have started a weekly web-comic project, I have entitled it The Radioactive Strip Project.  The title is sort of a shout-out to the Radioactive Sago band, but mainly due to the reason that I think it sounds cool.

The medium I used is the computer, though it was drawn free-hand using the mouse.  Tough, but it can be sometimes fun.  I’ll find a way to share the web-comic here so I can get an audience outside of the very small niche audience that I currently have.

Though drawing with a mouse free-hand requires a lot of skill and practice, I do not claim that I’m really good at it, compared to drawing on paper.  I just find it convenient on my part, plus the appearance of the end-product looks fun and light.

It is a four- to three-panel comic strip with a very broad plot that I have yet to flesh out.

I have long wanted to create a comic of my own, even when I was still a young kid.  Heck, I remember when we were in elementary, my friend drew comics. I tried to make some myself, but those ended up not viewed by anyone.  This is a big step for me, I guess – tossing it out here in the internet.

I’ll probably modify the theme of the site to accommodate the weekly web-comic thing some time soon.  For now, I’m thinking of placing it first in DeviantArt.  I could use a bit more audience, you know?

Well, that’s all for now, see you around.

Hey everyone.  I haven’t posted here in a while.  How are things?

It seems that the captcha that I have installed in the blog is working and is keeping the nasty spammers away…. I just hope that it’s not keeping you good people from posting comments, eh?

Now, the Facebook Page is not getting much fans, although I’ve been posting regular stuff every once in a while.  You know, things that are photography and art related…

It rained a lot today and I got wet. Well, at least there’s no sever weather disturbance at the moment.

I’ve also been watching Doctor Who. It’s awesome sci-fi stuff.  It got suspense, and a ton of fun.

Well, that’s all for now, I guess.  See you around.

The Local Government of Naga City, in cooperation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who acted as sponsor, launched the Naga City Family History Center this April 11, 2011.

The Family History Center provides online index and database of families in the Philippines.  It has collections of microfilms that contains records of birth, marriage and other personal records that date back as far as the 1700′s.

The Family History Center in Naga City, is not only the second one in the Philippines, next to Marikina, but it is also the second in the world.

The Memorandum of Agreement was signed by Mayor John Bongat for the City of Naga, and Elder Keith B. Edwards, from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The center was spearheaded by Councilor Nathan Sergio, and managed by the Naga City Library.

To access the microfilm records, you will have to visit the Raul S. Roco Library in Naga City.  It will also be available on-line.  There are four microfilm readers and two computer units that for use in the family history center.

If you have a Globe Tattoo broadband stick and somehow it cannot connect, what can you do?

I had experienced it once, found out the answer was fairly easy.  I felt stupid for not noticing it immediately.

Now, first of all, you need to make sure that there is a signal, and your internet stick has prepaid credits (load) in it.

Send a balance inquiry by sending a blank text message to 222.

Upon confirming that you have load and there is a signal, and yet you still cannot connect…

Verify that you are using the right “Account Type” on the log-on screen.  Apparently, my problem was that I was logging in as a Post Paid subscriber, when I was a Pre-paid subscriber.

Globe Tattoo allows signal and text messages to go through just fine despite the error in the settings.  I think it just works for the internet connection.

Well, good luck with your problem, and hope this helps.  Any luck?

I was walking to work when I saw this tarpaulin banner by the library.  It was entitled as such, except in Filipino, and got childish drawings of indians (no, not those people from India, American Indians…)

I was at first confused as to the message.  What are they aiming at here? I looked at the sub title, and it said something about point and shoot seminar for kids.

They’re teaching kids archery, are they?  That’s cool.

Then I re-read it, and realized… Hey, this is not archery, it’s photography!

I actually laughed at myself for not getting it in the first place.  I looked at the indian drawing again, and saw that aside from holding a bow in the right hand, he was holding a camera in the left.

I actually blurted aloud, “Oh, I get it!”

Then I caught myself, and quickly looked around… Thankfully, there were no one around.  They would have probably thought I was crazy or something.

For someone who uses a point-and-shoot camera, I like the idea of teaching kids the basics of photography.  People have the tendency to think that awesome tools make awesome results.  Well, of course they do – with the right hands, of course.  But, if it is in the hands of an ordinary person, well, the results can be quite ordinary.

Take a DSLR camera.  I was able to try one out a few months ago.  Yes, it felt cool and awesome trying to use it.  The shots were of high quality and resolution, but my shots looked mediocre.  I had to make use of the “automatic” settings for me to make a decent shot.  When I tried to use the manual settings by myself, it took a bit of time.  Thankfully, my manual shots were not that far away from the automatically-set shots.  But that’s besides the point.

My shots using the DSLR camera were just the same as my shots using my point and shoot camera.  Of course, the quality of the image, and the zoom were better, but the composition and style were the same.

But that does not mean I would not want to have a DSLR camera.  In fact, it made me realize that there is much more that I can do with a better camera.  I can make better macro shots, a different landscape shot, and a lot more creative shots that I could not do with my ordinary point and shoot.  Although I would end up carrying a heavier set of equipment, compared to a point and shoot that I can just strap on my belt…

So, yeah, I have to agree with the seminar.  I’d love to participate in it and say my point as well, or probably register in it, if it ain’t all kids, but the schedule seemed not in agreement with mine.

What about you? What is  your opinion on this matter? Do you prefer a high quality bow? Or would you rather have a high-quality shooting skill, like Robin Hood?

Have a nice day.

We are all for improving defense.

In connection with improving the development of the site, I have installed a captcha on comments and other forms.  Why, you ask?

It’s so we can protect ourselves from nasty spam comments.  OK, well, it’s mostly for me, for those spam comments are all in the pending section and are all waiting for me to kill them.
It used to be fine.  I can kill one or five in a day.  Then they became hundreds.  I nearly lost it, and closed the commenting for a long time.  I even transferred blogging to Mauru’s Realm Lite.  Now, I hope this works…

That should hold the site off against automatically generated script spam.

Well, welcome back, my dear readers, for I am hoping to make this site more active.

Changes and updates? Well, we upgraded the wordpress inter-phase, so if you have wordpress, your account info should be showing on the top of the site now.

Mauru’s Realm’s Facebook page is close to reaching its fans target of 25 so it can get a shorter URL.  I hope you will like that page and also help spread the news.  There are exclusive stuff for fans over there.

Well, that’s all for now.  What do you think of the Captcha? Sorry for the inconvenience.

Hello everyone.  I haven’t posted anything in this site for a long while.

The main reason is due to the hordes of spammers (shame on you) who have taken over the pending comments and made me frustrated about the anti-spam feature of this site.

So I moved my latest post to Mauru’s Realm Lite where there is a better control for spam.    Go and visit it.  Don’t worry, if you follow me in facebook or twitter, you’ll still get the updates on posts. In fact, I have made a couple of decent posts over there since the last post I made.

Some notable posts:

Amazing Nature Photos

Blackest Night – not your average zombie invasion

High School of the Dead 1 – The Zombies are coming

Also, in connection with spam, ( not SPAM), I have also locked down comments on the posts.  Sorry about that, specially if you meant to make a real comment.  You could just send me a message via the other above mentioned networks.

I wish I could set-up a “real” site soon.  I still have to build my audience a bit, though.  Help a guy out and spread the word.  Suggest to your facebook friends or something, or share any post that you found interesting, entertaining or helpful.

That’s all for now. See you around.

Artist Dalton Ghetti makes art from pencils. No, he does not draw with them, he makes amazing miniature sculptures with them!

Your ABC’s at the tip of your pencils.

I heard of “sword-chucks”, but “pencil-chucks”?

This pencil is screwed.

Full story and more photos at Buzzfeed

Image from Art of Living youth

Teaching kids how to draw is tough. They view things differently, and they also don’t have enough motor and coordination skills.

The key is to simplify!

While we can draw (or hope to draw) stuff in near realism, teaching kids the basics of drawing means we got to chop a drawing down to its basic shapes. A few scribbles and lines can be a fruit or a fish. You just need to be creative.

Creativity in how to break the image to simple shapes, without minding the depth or accuracy, and also creativity in figuring out what the child drew.

A little patience and a lot of patience, and did I mention a bit of patience is needed…

I had a hard time in trying to draw like a kid. I found it hard to make simple images that a kid can copy. But seeing how it was copied can be amusing.

Globe’s Broadband Plug-in device ain’t so free of problems.

While in my previous posts, I have shared my problems with the signal, I had worse problems that makes “signal” the least of my worries.

I haven’t used my Globe Tattoo in a while.  I had sufficient internet thanks to a DSL connection.  I rarely travel to places with no wi-fi connection, too, so that made my Globe Tatto a bit un-needed.

In fact, I haven’t used in a while, to the point that my spare load in there expired. D:

Well, it was only P10 anyway…

When the time came that I had to use my Globe Tattoo due to some internet and power trouble, no thanks to some passing typhoon, I realized something was wrong… The laptop was not detecting it.

I was a bit worried.  I haven’t used it in around three months, and before that, I once plugged it in a netbook running on Windows 7 starter.  When I plugged it in there, it was not detected as well.  However, when I plugged it in my laptop again, it was detected, so I scratched the idea that there could be something wrong with the stick.

When the internet plug-it was not detected this time, I was worried.  I was certain that something is terribly wrong.  I tried countless times, and even checked for the USB connection.  After plugging a non-detected Globe Tattoo in the USB, I swapped it with a Flash drive, which was of course, detected.

Seeing that all things seem to be lost, we decided to take the Globe Tattoo to a customer service desk.

They tested it, by first checking for the SIM card if it is still functioning.  They looked in their database, and, yup, it was still working.  I even went and inserted it in my cellular phone, checked for a balance, and all was working fine.

Next, the customer service guy asked me when I purchased it.  I just got it November last month, around eight months ago only.  He next asked if I still got my receipt.  I said, “I think I do.”  He said “good, because if this was broken under normal operating conditions, like it did not get wet, then it would be repaired for free.  If not the repairs will cost me.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.  I thought that stick will be a goner and be useless to me, and of course, that would affect my future use of Globe’s wireless internet service.

Hopefully, it would get repaired (for free) and whatever caused it be found out.  I’d hate to have it break down on me after a few months, again.

I am also a bit worried about shipping my Tattoo off somewhere to have it repaired.  I have read stories about under-warranty repairs ending up worse, or ugly.

Well, hope things all go well.

See you around.

What’s your sign? If you’d want to show your zodiac sign in your status updates or anything facebook related, just copy-paste the following:

♈ – Aries (The Ram)

♉ – Taurus (The bull)

♊ – Gemini (The Twins)

♋ – Cancer (The Crab)

♌ – Leo (The Lion)

♍ – Virgo (The Virgin)

♎ – Libra (The Scales)

♏ – Scorpio (The Scorpion)

♐ – Sagittarius (Centaur The Archer)

♑ – Capricorn (Goat-horned, The sea goat)

♒ – Aquarius (The water bearer)

♓ – Pisces (The fish)

Should the text appears as boxes, then there must be something wrong with your fonts… Though I doubt that will happen.

Don’t forget to hit the “Like” button if you find this useful.  Thanks.

Taken from: http://facebook-emoticons-symbols.blogspot.com/

Many of us think that houses can be pretty boring. Even for me, there were few opportunities or reasons for me to take a picture of a house.Then again, we may come to a time where we will encounter that house that looks really beautiful, or we want to preserve memories with houses we grew up in, here are five tips to make that shot great.

1. Tidy up. A clean look is easier than working on it with a photo editor. If you have control over the situation, then by all means, do clean up. It would be hard if you’re shooting another person’s house, though…
2. Pick an angle. Shooting from an angle gives the house added character and dimension. It can also let you pick at least two backgrounds to use, than shooting straight on.
3. Watch the weather. A cloudy day is better than a sunny one. The best lighting for a house can be achieved with it. Though shooting on a rainy day will be a tough cookie, best set for another day.
4. Balance the light. To make a house look cozy and inviting, there is nothing more important than balancing the light from the windows to the light outside. The key is to pick the right time of day. Around sun set is a good time, for the light outside and the light from inside the house will be balanced, and the house will seem to radiate with warmth.
5. Shoot in RAW. Because of the challenge of balancing natural light outside with electric light from the windows, this is a great time to use your camera’s RAW setting. With your RAW converter you can tweak the balance between the lighting and adjust the white balance to emphasize the warmth.

Source: http://digital-photography-school.com/

If life was chocolate, I’d be swimming in it.

I just remembered “Forest Gump,” and how “life is like a box of chocolates… You never know what you’re gonna get” for no reason.

While I don’t remember getting a box of chocolate where there was no description as to what its contents were, I do remember seeing a box of chocolates, and wondering what those wonderfully crafted little sweets tasted. After all, there are a lot of mixes for chocolate, and they have varied flavors. Sometimes, a piece of chocolate would surprise me with its taste.

Chocolate can be sweet, bitter or a mix of the two, or anything in between. Can we say the same with how our life flows? I can’t say for certain. If we look at a piece of chocolate and compare it with an event in our lives, then maybe a correlation can be made, but chocolates as a whole? I can’t really get a clear picture out of it.

I did not mean to go philosophical on you guys, it’s just that I am feeling hungry and craving for some chocolates…

Hey everyone. I understand that I haven’t posted anything in a while… Those who subscribed to our Facebook page, though, have been receiving random posts on tutorials and other interesting stuff that I have found.

Life has been a bit busy on my part, and handling them has taken its toll on me.  I feel very exhausted – unfortunately, rest won’t come easy for me…  Ah, what a man must do for a living, eh?

My greatest stress these past few weeks is the transportation to and from work.  I have a big distance to travel, and I have been late a lot.  Most of the time, it is the bus’ fault, being very slow, even though I arrive early or on time at the bus stop.

I have been doing random experiments with photography.  When a seminar was sponsored by our company, I volunteered to do photographs, aside from being tech-support for the projector and operator of the presentations.

I had fun with the cybershot.  I was able to capture good portrait shots.  A co-worker commented that the difference with the photographers can be seen with the photos.  I was able to get clear shots.

Well, clear shots was not just my objective.  I wanted to take “interesting” shots that will document the event, and tell a story.  Getting shots with the right timing was luck.  Sometimes, I would wait for a few minutes, observe the one talking, and wait for the right moment and shoot.  At the same time, I am hoping that my timing is right.

Thank God for digital photography, eh?  You can get results immediately.

I’ll try and get a hold of the photos and share some.. maybe in facebook… But if you don’t have an account, I guess you’ll have to wait a bit longer.

Well, see you later

By the way, I feel very envious of this cat here, whose photo I found via Google. ..

Sleep tight, kitty cat.

Learn how to mix drinks without getting drunk!

Nimble Strong boasts itself as the world’s first story driven, drink-mixing video game.  It got a lot of talents behind it, including Kyle Hebert.  The art is impressively drawn, as well.

The game play is fun and interesting.  Here is a video from the website of Nimble Strong showing a quick play of Act I. Note that you will have to time your screen touches to control the amount of ingredients that you will  be adding.  Also, in later levels, you will have to shake the phone itself to shake the drinks.

While I do not have a means to play this yet, I think that there is great potential in this game.  The faster you finish each order, you get a chance to get higher tips.  You can also have a printable certificate once you complete the game. How about that, eh?  Certified Virtual Bartender… or something.

For more information, visit the website Nimble Strong.

1024 x 768 | 1280 x 800

I stared at my screen for a long time before I figured out something to write.

Thinking on what my next post should be sometimes leaves me frustrated. I will try my best to gather my brain cells and work them into making something useful or worth reading.

But why go through all the trouble? I’ll just feel stressed if I cannot get anything out, so why bother?

My main reasons are creativity and expression

• Writing is a means of expression. It gives everyone a peek at the gears running in my head. I can share stuff that interests me, and hopefully interests others, too.
• Writing makes my brain work. Would you want your brain lazily hanging around the couch watching TV all day and not pulling its weight around? I’d certainly would not. I want my brain running around – keeping itself fit. Working your brain keeps it sharp and your memory will not only retain its sharpness, but will also improve.
• Writing is fun (as long as I can find something to write – that is). There is a zone that makes writing fun. It could be the stream of consciousness that flows out of your mind into whatever medium you write in, or the process of pulling ideas out and making it tangible, but whatever it is, writing can be a lot of fun. As long as I am having fun, I am fine with it.
• Writing is an exercise. The more you write, the better you get. I read other blogs, and though I do not see the process they go through to produce their outputs, I sometimes get the feeling that somehow they must write effortlessly, or with little effort compared to me. Then again, they must have written more than me, so their skill is much, much sharper. If this was a marathon, they would probably run circles around me.

Sometimes, I have to force myself to write. I’ll hold a bat in front of me and wave it menacingly at myself, threatening that I will crack my head open if I don’t get to writing… Well, not really. But there are times when I have to jumpstart myself by forcibly writing a start. Afterwards, the words sometimes just flow out like a huge torrent of water.

I am hoping that one day I will not have to write like that. But until then, I’ll need more practice.

Why do you write, and how easy is it for you?

And while searching for an image I could use for this post, I found this amusing comic strip from Calvin and Hobbes.  If only I cracked writing at that early age… *laughs*

A lot of us has those terrible scenarios in our head involving our stuff… Our stuff getting lost, that is.

While this post was used as a safeguard to help the person have a chance of recovering his digital camera, I think there is also a fair chance that this might work for cellular phones which can hold photos.

How to Get Back your Camera When you Loose it.

That guy in the photo is Andrew McDonald, and that link has a series of photos that got me chuckling. If I found his camera, and not have stolen it, I’d probably return it.  Wouldn’t you?

You can head on over there, and head back here and share some of your thoughts to me, as well.

You may not know it, but you may be giving more information out to the world than you thought you were.

Facebook’s privacy settings have been one of the top concerns for users. It is not that we don’t want to share anything on-line, but it’s that we want to have control on who can see those things. In the past, facebook has had a shaky history on privacy, making people opt to just delete their profile from facebook altogether.

With a new privacy setting that it will be rolling out soon, facebook plans to integrate itself more on the web, to enable us to document more of our life – and for us to share more to our friends.

Facebook wants us to be transparent. That is why it has somehow gained the infamous title of the Web’s sketchy Big Brother. Anyone can see what we’re up to… At least up to what we share on-line.

People want to share. It’s why we like to tell stories, take photographs and chat with friends. Facebook has become a platform for this. That is why a lot of people seem to like it – plus the fact that it took steps to hook us to the site.

But as much as we want to share, there is something unsettling about giving the entire world a front row seat to our lives. But that is not stopping people from sharing, so facebook thrives.

Have you noticed that the ads on facebook seems more targeted to us specifically than other sites? It’s simple – what we do on facebook, what we share, what we like and even what our friends share or like are stored, analyzed and advertisements more suited for us are given. It is very different from Google who gives us ads based on our searching habits or the content of the site that we visit.

Games were only able to store our personal information for 24 hours, but now, they can store it indefinitely, until we delete the application, of course.

In April, they launched a major initiative called Open Graph, which lets us weigh in on what we like on the web – from a blog article, a game, a movie, or maybe a band. And the idea goes around that if your friend likes it, you’re most likely to like it too. This allows facebook to position itself better to advertisers, for since it has a lot of users, a lot of companies want to attract those users’ attention.

With a mission to make the world more open and connected, what else can we expect from the site, eh?

All we can do is to stay alert with these privacy changes, although it is hard to do. Facebook has the tendency to enable by default whatever changes it sets. Should and when the user notices that his shield has been lowered, it might have been too late already. Users counter this by spreading via status messages any of these things, passing it along to their network.

This issue has been a great concern that it even made it to Time’s front page. You can read more about the Time article here. It’s where we got that nifty image above, too.

What are your concerns on this issue? Leave your ideas on our comments below.

If you thought you got a good deal out of that cheap peripheral, think again… You might have paid for something more expensive than it’s actually worth.

And we learned it the hard way… By experience kicking our rears.

We bought a USB LCD mouse at CDR King.  It was not a bad idea at the time… Buying a cheap mouse, probably sacrificing the luxurious design with some cheap plastic feel.  It was even that one with a retractable cord.

I noted to myself that we should be very careful with the thin wires… It might break or something.

After paying, the cashier told us that we got a week’s worth of warranty.  Well, that’s not bad.  We could test out the equipment for a week, and it should work fine, right?

And it did, too.

We barely noticed the week passed by.  It was working well.

Everything changed after a week, though… The LCD weakened on the eighth day, and for a while the mouse pointer did not move.  I transferred it to a different PC, in the hope of finding the problem with the USB or something… Still nothing.  Well, the buttons and wheel are working fine, it’s just the directions.

I poked it a bit and like a miracle it shone back to life.  It worked again! Yay.

I hoped that it was just a fluke.  That everything will be fine and well.

I guess I was wrong.  It was our mouse breathing its final breath on its deathbed.

The next day, the lights completely died. I’m guessing on loose wiring or something, but I can’t figure out how to open it… Hey, it’s past warranty, might as well poke around with it… But yeah, I don’t want to permanently break it at least, with its other functions working well.

So I guess quality in electronics can really be measured with the price.  True, there are some that could have worked well, and for a long time, too… But it’s a gamble.  You could end up with one crappy piece of junk, or one excellent one.  Where’s the quality in that, eh?

So I’ll be buying a new mouse, and this time, I’ll go with more reputable brands.  I may be paying more, but at least that includes peace of mind that our mouse would probably last a while, under normal operating conditions of course.

I don’t think a mouse can survive a drop from a few floors off a building. A cat might, but a mouse… Heh.

“Aha! I’ll blog about that next. Wait a minute…”

I am often plagued with questions on what I could write next in my blog. Below are a few that came to the top of my head as I figured out what to write.

Can I write anything in my blog?

If you are writing for a blog that caters to a certain niche, then it may be hard to give a “yes” to this one. Although I have read some sites where bloggers wrote something different from the site’s topic, it was a bit related.

However if it is your own blog, then the answer would really depend on you. Can you make your post related to your site? Should you make it related or is it too personal that writing anything that comes to the top of your head is fine?

While Mauru’s Realm was designed to be my portfolio site, I also post related things in my life which I hope could interest or help you.

Can I write more about a topic previously covered?

The need to write more about a previous topic that you have written on can be seen from comments or the article written.

Some readers would leave comments and ask for more regarding that topic. (See how important comments are?) As the blogger of that article, you are more or less needed to respond to that demand. While the demand for writing more based on this reason may not arise immediately, it is certainly visible. How can you resist not writing more about something if your comments are filled with “Can you please write more about this?” or “I want to read more on this topic”?

There are also some times when a topic is too broadly written that you can further write about it. I sometimes write on things too broadly. I was not due to my laziness. It wasn’t, really.

Some topics are just too hard to compress in a few pages that would not intimidate the average reader or make use of one’s time too much. Writing further sub-topics and linking the together is not a bad idea.

Should you decide to write more on a previously covered topic, you will have the opportunity to create what is known as a “Series Post.” It is a group of related posts or topics which can be presented to the reader in a chronological order. The decision to do so rests on you, though. The way you structure your next post will be different from a simple follow-up post. It should be written in a certain order, much like how we watch a television series. You cannot quite call it a series post if you make a couple of posts which just randomly jumps from the end to any part in the middle… Unless you would want to pull it off that way, I guess.

Should I read other blogs and build or expand on their ideas?

Blogging builds communities that are interested in similar topics by linking or referencing other bloggers’ works (What is a Blog). It is not a bad idea to write more on another person’s article or blog. The reason could be similar to the previous question, except it was done by another person, and not you.

When we read, we tend to get ideas on stuff. It gets our mind running. Our thoughts on the matter can be expressed in our own blog.

Just don’t forget to link that blog you were talking about.

For example, I loosely based this post about a Series entitled How to Craft a Blog Post. When I read those blog entries, I got a few ideas juggled in my head. I felt that I should find a way to express those ideas. This was one of them. I wanted to share a few questions that were in my head in the hopes that it might help others such as you.

Do you have questions that help you in writing your blog posts? Feel free to share them in the comments.

As I have mentioned earlier, I had been shooting photographs of various stuff.  In this post, I will feature various Nature shots that I have in my deviantart account.

I have a couple more that I have not uploaded yet.  I’ll post it some other time.

It was my sock’s fault – well, more like winsock’s… heh.

All I needed to do was to reset my Winsock.

After weeks of troubleshooting what I thought initially as a server, then an ISP problem, I narrowed down my site loading issues to my computer’s.  I initially disregarded it because my site loaded fine using a different ISP, or my Globe Tattoo stick, and also loaded fine using proxy servers.

But when I saw it load nicely on Jean’s PC, and not on mine, well I thought that something was up.

True enough, after resetting my winsock I managed to fix whatever the problem was.  I am not quite sure what caused the problem – it could have been some ad-ware… But at least it is working fine now.

Man, I was not able to post anything in here in a long time.  Now, we can have more regular updates. Yay!

Well, it’s not like I was not updating anything.  During the time that I was not able to post anything here, I was posting in the site’s facebook page (Mauru’s Realm / http://tinyurl.com/2g46s8w) and those who “liked” or became a fan of it got updates.

I really am very happy about the result. So excuse me while me and this tiny cat have a high five. *high fives*

In case you are wondering what I did… Here are the instructions to resetting your Winsocks.

I recommend that you have a copy of your TCP/IP settings somewhere for it also removes them and returns it to default.

Here’s how to reset your winsock in windows XP / 200(x)

1. Open the command prompt

2. Type in “netsh winsock reset” (without the quotes)

3. After resetting winsock, Restart your computer.

That’s it, you have successfully reset your winsock.

We went to the voting precinct this morning, and while we arrived at there at around half an hour of the opening of the polls, there were a lot of people crowded there already.

The first problem we encountered was finding our precinct, or the place where we will cast our ballots.

I discovered that due to the change in the voting system, from a manual to an automated counting one, the voter’s precincts were clustered. Around five (5) were grouped together in one cluster, which contained around a hundred plus voters.

Finding one’s name in the list was a bit hard.  We opted to separate to try and find our names, for more people have more chances of finding our names.  I went to the lists, my parents and sister tried the data bank service of a volunteer group.

I tried a few lists and on my second try, I ran into our names.  I memorized our numbers and as I headed back, I met them.  They returned empty handed.  It seemed that their names was not in the computerized list. Nice.

Then we proceeded to the line to cast our votes. A volunteer for our cluster directed us towards the covered court in front of the precincts which was crammed with people.  She said that we should fall in line there.

Holy hell.  The line was long.

Fortunately, the people were from other clusters.  So we searched for our cluster and went in line.  The line was still relatively long.  Two rows of chairs were placed.  Around twenty chairs  were in one row.  Those seated there were in the line to vote.  We were standing in a line after them, with around twenty or more people ahead of us.

The line moved very slowly.

After being in line for almost an hour, the line seemed to grind to a complete halt.

From the distance of the voting precinct, we could see people crowded in front of the door.  We presumed people were cutting in line.

Sure enough we saw a couple of people which seemed to be standing with the people,minding their own business or talking with the one in the line.  After a few minutes, we could see them now in the line.  Then new comers would mistake the end of the line of people standing between the voting precinct and the rows of chairs and found themselves cutting in the line.

A lot of people complained.

The precinct beside us were handling the people more effectively.  Every five set that moved forward from their group was a movement in ours.  A set is composed of five people, for only ten can be in the room at once.

I was practically being apathetic at everything.

I looked at people that seemed to be cutting in the line, and did nothing but criticize them.  I found out later that some of those that I saw were senior citizens which were given priority in the voting. My mistake.

When the line was practically not moving at all, a few adults stepped up and, not only complained to the volunteers who were keeping the order, they also helped by suggesting that we imitate what the other precinct was doing.

They removed any line in front of the door and instead gave numbers to those seated.  And once there is a vacancy in the room, a set of five people were called in to present their number to the watcher.

It took a lot of time before the long line of people in front of the door was cleared.  People kept a vigilant watch of those who attempted to cut in line or fell in line at the end of it.  Watchers stationed themselves at the end of the line and directed new people at the end of the long, winding line.

Standing  in line was gruesome. It was hot, there were a lot of people and since it took a lot of time, a lot felt hungry and thirsty.

I felt relieved when our line started moving.  People even applauded.

After a few minutes, I was then seated.  It took an average of ten minutes before we moved again.  After thirty minutes, I found myself standing by the precinct door. Finally!

I looked at the Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) Machine and thought about how the lack of their number caused our suffering.  If only there was enough of these machines so that we could vote conveniently.

The convenience of the automatic count cost the voters time.  A watcher even mentioned that they did not mind the long night of manually counting the votes for the voting process was quicker.

Voting was easy.  All we had to do was shade the circles for our favored candidates.  However, since we were given permanent markers, the ink bled to the back of the paper.  It would not have been a problem, but there were also options at the back.

I tried very carefully not to make the ink bleed to the back.  There were still some, though… When I finished voting, I submitted my paper to the counting machine.  In the first try, the paper was rejected.  It went well in the second run as the words “Congratulations” on the little monitor.

Looking back on the ordeal, was waiting in line that long worth it?  We spent three hours in that line, and when we left, there were still a lot of people.  COMELEC even extended the voting time from 6:00PM to 7:00PM due to the slow movement and high turn-out of voters.  it was a very uncomfortable experience, but if it will give us faster results and more peace of mind, then it’s not bad, I guess.

I just hope that in the next years to come, more machines will be added so it can accommodate more people, reducing the long lines.

I was having trouble maintaining my site this past few months, mainly because I had trouble accessing my site.  It seemed that the CSS or style sheets were not working, even though it was fine when viewed from proxy sites.  I concluded that it could be my Internet Provider or something… I was not even able to load the site’s backroom, hence the lack of activities.

These past few weeks I have been working on drawings.  I’ll be updating a post on them soon… including the post on some photograpy.

Man, I have a lot of backlogs.

Well, I guess I’ll be working on it in the next few days…

I hope.

Well, that is it for now.  I’ll be seeing you around.

Hello everyone. I haven’t been able to update in a very long while… It’s just that I had hit a creative slump last month, and was not able to do anything.

This past few weeks, however, I was able to make some art stuff. I you have “liked” our facebook page, you might have seen what I have been up to.

I have managed to upload photos in deviant art, practiced drawing with the use of the pen tool in photoshop, among many others that have distracted me from working on the site.

When I was planning to update, though, the site seemed to have gone haywire. The site design seemed to have failed, and the style sheets were not loading properly. When I mentioned this in my facebook status, my older cousin Geoff asked for the URL and told me that everything was doing well on his end. Before he gave me that answer, I looked at the site using some proxy addresses, and found the site looking well.

I concluded that it was our internet acting up – probably making the site not load properly. It seems to be working a bit now…

Anyway, I’ll post the photos that I have submitted here as well.

Summer is close to ending but it is still very hot… Darn it…

If you want to stay up to date, and also get other miscellaneous information on stuff that I do not post in here, you can click that “like” button on the left menu and join me in facebook.

That is all for now. See you around.

Normally, i would be fine if no ads are shown in my site, specially since I am still stuck with a free webhost.

But in this case, the ads that I have up here are mine (from Google of course), and any proceeds from anyone clicking it – no matter how small the figure is, gets credited to my account.  Can you blame a guy for trying to find means to support a paid webhost sometime in the future and his own domain to boot?

Anyway, back to topic, ads had been working fine for the few years that I had been using freehostia.com then it disappeared for some reason that is freehostia’s fault.  Then it returned.  I was happy for at that time, geocities went boom and down the drain.

Now, all I see is white space.

There could be three reasons:

1. Freehostia blocked it (again)

2. Google blocked me (wut?!)

3. Or I messed up.

Freehostia blocking google ads again is still possible.  But I have not encountered any search results about it recently – except for this post where even in the “sand box” the ads were not showing.  I tried mine on that sandbox, and nothing as well.  The people of that thread said that it could be google.

Google could have blocked me without warning.  I have no idea why, too.  I have a privacy policy set-up – which is a prerequisite. I wrote google to check if my site is still in compliance.  Hopefully something will be resolved positively.

If I messed up, I don’t know what it could be.  The only major thing I have done was link this site’s RSS feeds to a facebook page – and adding a fan badge to the sidebar… Other than that, I don’t know…

Well, I did what I can, and asked Google.  Hopefully, things will work ok.  I still want that webhost and domain that will be the fruit of my internet labors.

See you around.