The GeloTon Blog

Relocated!

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:49:00 +0800

Visit our new blog here: http://blogious.wordpress.com! Ciao!

More Deviations

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:47:00 +0800

Please visit my DeviantArt profile.

For those of you who don't know what DeviantArt is, here's a definition from Wikipedia: DeviantArt is an international online artistic community. It was first launched on August 7, 2000 by Scott Jarkoff, Angelo Sotira and Matthew Stephens, amongst others.

As of this writing, I've already submitted 11 deviations (or art pieces).

I'd appreciate the views and downloads, especially the favs. :)

Raul Gonzalez

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:16:00 +0800

Don't you just hate Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez?

Known for his knack for making careless statements, Gonzalez made a press announcement last Thursday that slain US Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell is partly to blame for her own tragedy.

Heartless. Shameless. Stupid.

Good News, Bad News

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:11:00 +0800

Okay, bad news first. The Virginia Tech Univ killings. The Filipino people prays for those who were slain. Shit you, Cho Seung Hui.

And the good news. Sanjaya is OUT! Woohoo! I have to admit, though, him being voted out will make this American Idol season the most boring of all.

Silverlight

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:49:00 +0800

Wow... Exciting! Check it out, here. I hope it's not disappointing, considering that Adobe has already set high expectations for such products.

Deviously Deviant

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:40:00 +0800

I am now... Deviously deviant!

I just finished my first work, I registered an account yesterday.

Go to the DeviantArt home page, or go directly to my profile.

Please leave your comments on my work so I can improve. But please, constructive criticisms only. :)

IMDb Trivia

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 17:55:00 +0800

Here's a good one for my favorite movie of all-time, Sin City:

Although the movie is presented primarily in black and white, particular items are in color and, as such, had to be colored blue or green on set. According to Robert Rodriguez, Nick Stahl (who plays Yellow Bastard) was known on set as "The Blue Bastard". Yellow Bastard had to be painted blue because yellow, like green, reacts with the green screen. This causes the color to spill into the background, making them impossible to separate.

Fun facts such as the above are what I usually make myself busy with when I've got nothing to do on the Internet. Go to IMDb, search for any movie, and the Trivia link on the left side should be easy to find.

V. Santos-Recto is Hilarious

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 09:05:00 +0800

Don't you just hate Vilma Santos?

Yesterday on the national primetime news, Mayor Vilma Santos-Recto of Lipa, an actress and candidate for governorship in Batangas, tried to justify EVAT (Extended Value Added Tax – a consumption tax imposed on the sale or importation of goods and services), of which her husband, senatorial candidate Ralph Recto, is one of the authors.

She said that her husband was right in pursuing the implementation of Republic Act 9337 because EVAT was responsible for procuring 80-B pesos for the country's expenses.

She added that Sen. Recto did not just pocket the money, and that they wrote EVAT with the Filipinos’ welfare in mind.

Let us not forget that, according to the latest Political and Economic Risk Consultancy survey, based in Hong Kong, the Philippines is the most corrupt country in Asia. That’s why the Philippines has been getting the least amount of foreign direct investment, and the level of foreign capital flowing to our stock market is low.

Let us not forget that, although Santos-Recto claims that our government spent 80-B pesos for building more schools for the poverty-stricken districts of the Philippines, despite the Philippine Constitution mandating the government to allocate the highest proportion of its budget to education, the Philippines remains to have one of the lowest budget allocations to education among the ASEAN countries.

Let us not forget that in the latest ASEAN summit held in Cebu City, a sum of 27,776,000 pesos was spent for the 124 sets of lampposts alone.

Let us not forget that the 12% EVAT, or VAT for that matter, applied on almost all of the Pinoy's commodities has made so many of our countrymen hungry, thus, resorting to desperate and sometimes illegal ways to survive.

EVAT has killed so many Filipinos, and Mayor Vilma Santos-Recto, Sen. Ralph Recto, and the rest of those officials seating on their comfortable thrones do not see that.

Blogger's Code of Conduct

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Mon, 9 Apr 2007 16:37:00 +0800

Here's something great for all of us.

After what happened to poor Kathy Sierra, friend and prominent blogger Tim O'Reilly proposed a set of blogger's COC. This is still in the process of preparation and you can view the draft HERE for suggestions or comments.

Dividing Your Text into Sections with Macromedia Flash

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sat, 7 Apr 2007 17:37:00 +0800

Learning how to divide your text into sections and manipulating them can help you a lot in many projects that you want to pursue. Following are steps on how to do this, which also include great ideas.

Step 1 After opening a new file in Flash, depending on how you are going to use the image, select a nice font type and size. To illustrate the steps well, I chose bold Century Gothic at font size 90. I also adjusted the Character Spacing to -8 to give the text a better look.

Step 2 Rename Layer 1 as Main, and then type your text.

Step 3 Select your text then hit CTRL+B twice or select Modify > Break Apart twice to rasterize it.

Step 4 Select the Line Tool (N) on the Tools panel then change the color to something that is different from your text. Draw the line above your text then vary the curves the way you want to. For this example, I chose a simple curve.

Step 5 Select the entire line then drag it toward your text, like a divider.

Step 6 Deselect the line by clicking outside the text. On the right, at the Color Mixer panel, select Linear as your gradient type then change the colors to the following: #00FFFF for the left color and #99CCFF for the second color at the right.

Click the Pain Bucket Tool (K) and click on one portion of your text, the drag it downward.

Step 7 Click the Lock Fill button at the bottom of the Tools panel (remember that this button appears only when the Paint Bucket Tool is still selected), then continue applying the gradient to the remaining upper sections of your text. This ensures that the gradient remains uniform or consistent.

Step 8 Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other half of the text. For this example, I chose for the second set of colors #000099 for the left color and #000033 for the right.

Step 9 Delete the dividing line by double-clicking it and then tapping the Delete or Backspace key on your keyboard.

You’re done! Following are a few other examples. You may also experiment with different gradient angles and colors, and use shapes as your “dividers” in future projects. I hope you learned something from this tutorial.

New Template

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Fri, 6 Apr 2007 10:47:00 +0800

I am currently experimenting with a new template for this blog, and you can preview it through our test blog.

I basically changed just the images, and I would like to know if the new layout works for you.

Please send us your feedback through our Contact Us page, or leave your response on this article (although I'd very much prefer the former).

Death of Nina Wang

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Thu, 5 Apr 2007 13:08:00 +0800

Nina Wang or Kung Yu Sum, the richest woman and 35th richest person in Asia after winning against her father-in-law for a multi-billion dollar estate left by her late husband, has died of an unspecified illness.

Wang had a total net worth of $4,200,000,000. She was the widow of Hong Kong chemical magnate Teddy Wang, who disappeared after a kidnapping in 1990.

On April 4, 2007, Chinachem (the Wangs' chemical company) announced that Wang passed away at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital the previous day. Although the cause of death has not been disclosed, there have been reports suggesting that she might have been suffering from ovarian cancer.

On Cocaine Plus Something Else

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Wed, 4 Apr 2007 09:06:00 +0800

Keith Richards, Rolling Stones guitarist who's set to play Johnny Depp's father in the next Pirates of the Caribbean film, admits that he snorted his father.

Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002 at age 84.

He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," Richards said. "...It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive.

Richards, 63, is known for abusing various illegal substances.

All I can say, aside from "Ewww," is I hope his father's soul rests in peace (inside his brain).

The More Bites the Better

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Mon, 2 Apr 2007 23:05:00 +0800

Now I know.

The saliva of those insects that persistently bite you may actually boost your immunity to the diseases that their relatives carry later. This has been documented in a disease afflicting soldiers coming back from Iraq, leishmaniasis. Now a study in mice has shown mosquito saliva can protect against malaria. Amazing, huh?

Giving Great Outlines to Text Using Macromedia Flash

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Mon, 2 Apr 2007 10:24:00 +0800

Following are simple steps on applying basic outlines to text through Macromedia Flash.

Step 1 After opening a new file in Flash, depending on how you are going to use the image, select a nice font type and size. To illustrate the steps well, I chose Eras Medium ITC at font size 90. I also adjusted the Character Spacing to -8 to give the text a better look.

Step 2 Rename Layer 1 as Main, and then type your text.

Step 3 Duplicate the Main layer by doing the following: Select the layer you want to copy. On your keyboard, press CTRL+ALT+C or select Edit > Copy Frames. Create a new layer, select it, then press CTRL+ALT+V or select Edit > Paste Frames. Rename the new layer as Outline, and make sure that it is the lower layer. Hide and lock the Main layer for now then go back to the Outline layer.

Step 4 Ungroup your text and rasterize it by pressing CTRL+B on your keyboard twice or selecting Modify > Break Apart twice.

Step 5 Choose the Ink Bottle Tool (S) and set its thickness to 10 on your Property inspector. For the purpose of simplicity, we will use white as the first outline’s Stroke color. Since you will not be able to see this outline using the default Flash background, set the background to a different color, say gray. Apply this to every component of your text, including dots or dashes, etc.

Step 6 To further manipulate this outline, click the Outline layer, then select Modify > Shape > Convert Lines to Fills (this way, you can apply another outline).

Step 7 Duplicate the Outline layer using Step 3. Instead, rename this new layer as Outline 2, and lock and hide the other two layers. Arrange your layers this way:

Step 8 Select the Ink Bottle Tool again, then set its thickness to 2 this time. Change the Stroke color to black, in contrast to your first outline. Apply the secondary outline to your text, which already has the white outline.

Step 9 Change the background color back to white, and unhide and lock all of your layers.

You are done! Here are a few other examples for this tutorial. I hope you learned something and enjoyed the experience as well. You may also experiment with other color techniques and different Stroke styles like Dotted, Dashed, etc., and other Stroke thicknesses from the Property inspector.

Best One So Far

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sun, 1 Apr 2007 21:00:00 +0800

Here's an April Fool's Prank for you, brought by the Mountain View, California-based company, Google.

It's fast. It's free. It's good for you. It's the TiSP! The Toilet Internet Service Provider.

Get yours now. If you want more info, just go to the TiSP home, or go directly to the FAQ.

Tagged as the "Dark Porcelain" project, Google said its "Toilet Internet Service Provider" (TiSP) works with Microsoft Corp.'s new Windows Vista operating system. But sorry - septic tanks are incompatible with the system's requirements.

There are three plans available: Trickle, The #2, and the Royal Flush. Royal Flush is the fastest plan with a download rate of 32 Mbps (40X basic DSL). Wow.

There's also a mock press release with quotes from Google Co-founder and President Larry Page such as, "What's interesting, though, is how many different modalities there are for actually getting that information to you - not to mention from you," and "There's actually a thriving little underground community that's been studying this exact solution for a long time, and today our Toilet ISP team is pleased to be leading the way through the sewers, up out of your toilet and - splat - right onto your PC."

Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, believes that "TiSP will be a breakthrough product, particularly for those users who, like Larry himself, do much of their best thinking in the bathroom."

Ready to do some GFlushing™?

Is There a Shortage?

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sun, 1 Apr 2007 18:05:00 +0800

I gzz cnzervng vowlz or zomtimz addng the lettr z mkez it cool.

Razr. Rizr. Slvr. Krzr. Etc.

I'm curious.

A Movie Called "Zoo"

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sun, 1 Apr 2007 17:17:00 +0800

This new Sundance Film Festival qualifier strangely calls itself "Zoo".

Far from strange though, I find the subject repulsive. Bestiality it is, and this film recreates the sensational true-to-life event wherein Kenneth Pinyan - referred to in the film only as Mr. Hands - dies of internal injuries after engaging in a sexual act with a horse. It turns out that "zoo" here points to "zoophile", a person who develops strong affinity to an animal, even reaching a carnal level.

I have to admit, despite its subject being taboo, this film caught my interest. This is also because they recreated the tragedy into a film, not merely a documentary.

Looking for Things to Do

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 01:10:00 +0800

The power was out the whole day, so instead of sleeping the day through like a sloth, I chose to write something in draft for my blog. And what better subject to write about on a day without electricity than the things that we usually do on a day without electricity.

ACTIVITY 1 Monopoly. The world's no. 1 board game remains to be so. We bought our deluxe set half a year ago for exactly the same purpose: to have something to play that does not run on power. Like for a contingency. And what kind of household does not have monopoly?

ACTIVITY 2 Books. Ahhh… Now this is something that I cannot live without. Reading acts as my next fix for when boredom lurks around. We have several titles at home, and my personal favorites are the Sword of Truth series and the Vampire Chronicles. Add the Harry Potter to the two.

Reading is the only activity that I willingly do for 10 hours straight (well, except for the occasional break) other than doing something on the PC.

ACTIVITY 3 Crochet. Funny, huh? But with a reason. This little outlet of queerty keeps my fingers busy, thus serving as relaxation for my mind, since it does not require too much thinking. More than this, though, is that crocheting helps to take my mind off smoking, which is a vice I am trying to rid myself of. Medical studies actually prove this as well. Not exactly through crocheting though, but the concept is the same.

My most ambitious creation so far is a blanket. I have been trying to finish it for almost 3 months now, and I am not even halfway through. Not that I am not gaining a good pace while doing it. It is just that I get easily distracted, and at several times, detour to different projects like tabletop accents and wall decors.

ACTIVITY 4 Magic. I have kept my Magic cards well ever since I started collecting 5 years or so ago. Some of them I managed to maintain in mint condition, and I have quite a few rare and valuable ones, although I am so left behind when it comes to the latest expansion sets. Other than occasions like this one, I rarely play the card game, primarily because I have preserved my original objective, which is to merely collect the cards.

ACTIVITY 5 VCDs. I do not know how I came to have this many movies. Although DVDs are much better copies, and since they are expensive, I realized that keeping the VCD copies is worth it, because someday even DVD ones will be left behind by more advanced technologies. This is not saying that I do not collect DVDs though. Who does not?

So what do we do? We take our battery packs and watch a movie or two on the old IBM ThinkPad. Thank God we have not sold that WW II veteran of a machine yet.

The announcement was that the brownout would last from eight to eight only. Patience is a virtue, but I had thought that if it meant 8 AM to 8 AM the next day, to hell with the activities I listed above. I would just go to sleep.

Great Gradient Text Effects Using Macromedia Flash

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:44:00 +0800

Here is a simple step-by-step procedure on applying great gradient text effects on any font using Macromedia Flash, like the example above.

Step 1 After opening a new file in Flash, depending on how you are going to use the image, select a nice font type and size. To illustrate the steps well, I chose bold Century Gothic at font size 80. I also adjusted the Character Spacing to -8 to give the text a better look.

Step 2 Rename Layer 1 as Main, and then type your text.

Step 3 Duplicate the layer. You can do this by first pressing CTRL+ALT+C (Edit > Copy Frames). Add a new layer, then select that new layer, and then press CTRL+ALT+V (Edit > Paste Frames). Rename this new layer as Mask. Make sure that the Mask layer is above the Main layer. Hide and Lock this layer for now.

Step 4 Select the text then hit CTRL+B (or select Modify > Break Apart) twice to ungroup the letters. This is to manipulate the text well, including each pixel group.

Step 5 Choose the Line Tool (N) then select the same color as your font. Drag a line from the first letter to the last. If there are dots, dashes, or other components, connect them to the letter group as well; you can use different segments for these.

Click the Main layer again then select Modify > Shape > Convert Lines to Fills.

The purpose of this step is to group all of the pixel components as one. You can check that you have grouped all of them by deselecting the text, then clicking it again, and being able to highlight the whole thing without dragging

Step 6 Duplicate the Main layer again, following the steps in Step 3. This time, rename the layer as Gloss, and make sure that it is the middle layer. Lock and hide this layer as well.

Step 7 Select the Main layer again and on your Color Mixer on the right, choose Linear as your gradient type. Select the colors that you want for your text. For this example, I chose #0000FF for the first color, #00FFFF as the second and for the third color, I selected #FFFF00.

Step 8 Select the Gloss layer and unhide and unlock it. On the Color Mixer panel, select Linear again for your gradient type. For the first color, select white, and for the second color, select white as well but with an alpha of 0%.

Once you have applied this gradient on the text on the Gloss layer, select the Fill Transform Tool (F), and click and manipulate the gradient such that it becomes vertical for the text. Since this is for making the text shiny, you should resize the gradient to cover only down to the middle of the text.

Step 9 We will now use the Mask layer to hide the horizontal line on the other two layers. Right-click the Mask layer then choose Mask. Make sure that the other two layers are included in the mask. You can do this by dragging the layers into the mask. Unhide then lock all layers.

You are done!

The purpose of this tutorial is to teach you the basics of how to effectively manipulate fonts. Following are some examples where I experimented with different gradient colors, shapes and angles, and different font types. I hope you learned something from this tutorial.

Media’s Role on Rape, Incest and Pedophilia

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:26:00 +0800

Gelo and Ton converse about the media – television/screen, print, etc. – and its power on three of the society’s chief problems: Rape, incest and pedophilia.

Ton: What do you suppose?
Gelo: I think we should eat. There’s this great new recipe at the KIPLog Food Blog that makes me (SLURP) salivate.
Ton: Come on, Gelo.
Gelo: Aha! You’re demanding to engage me into a conversation that we both know you already have things to say about.
Ton: Precisely.
Gelo: Seriously though, I view the media as nothing more than its root - medium - an intervening substance through which signals can travel as a means for communication.

Gelo says: ...I view the media as nothing more than its root - medium...

Ton: You’re saying that media has no influence whatsoever on rape, incest or pedophilia.
Gelo: I believe that it does have an influence, just that it can’t be blamed for why these three issues recur. Again, it’s just a medium, merely a carrier of something.
Ton: Ever see those children dancing ocho-ocho (a dance move here in the Philippines, literally meaning eight-eight, and is purportedly suggesting a sexual theme)?
Gelo: Yes. What are you saying?
Ton: Well, psychology tells us that there’s a subsequent behavior to a stimulus. An advertisement projects images, gives information, and conveys subliminal messages, which serve as stimuli to the human mind. Teenagers today have gone remote from how the teenagers were, say, 50 years ago. They no longer wear long skirts or puffed sleeves or conservative dresses. What do we see on TV and magazines, even in broadsheets? Spaghetti straps, tight-fitting jeans, short skirts.
Gelo: Hmmm.
Ton: Teens are motivated to follow what’s IN, and that motivation, media, causes the obsession, and obsession rarely doesn’t worsen.

Ton Says: ...and that motivation, media, causes the obsession, and obsession rarely doesn’t worsen.

Gelo: But you also have to consider – other than psychology – the laws of physics.
Ton: The what?

Gelo: For example, someone gets electrocuted upon touching water – your medium – that has strong electric current running through it. In this case, you can’t blame water for conducting electricity. When there’s a sexually suggestive theme shown on TV, you can’t hold TV responsible for it. To a certain extent, the blame is put on those on both ends of the tunnel. And for this reason, we have concepts such as censorship or classification.
Ton: Yes. But although a Parental Guidance message is flashed on screen, you would rarely see a parent actually doing something about it. Therefore the effect – children’s minds are filled with garbage. And this sexual trash stays with them until they grow old. Children are less mature individuals, thus less discriminating of external stimulus, as compared to adults, and become more vulnerable.
Gelo: Yes, you’re right. It’s difficult to assess the extent to which media must be blamed for rape, incest and pedophilia, though. I guess you can say it’s just a matter of perspective now.

Ton: Too many external factors interplay but there is no denying that mass media has its own share of culpability. So… how do we end this?
Gelo: It just does. Ahhh. Food for the mind. I’m okay now. (BURP)

If You Wanna Rant...

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 17:10:00 +0800

If you have a problem with stuff and just want to write about it, better think twice and just forget about it, considering that a great majority of the blogs circulating here in the Philippines is about one thing: Ranting and having it published for the whole world to see.

However, to do something against your urge to do it, I suggest reading this blog site, which will give you a ton of laughs, and which stands out from all the other rant-blogs out there: You Want The Truth?

Author is Miss Diss, who also writes for the Man Blog. Note that she's the only female author there. On the site, she also left her email address if you "want me to diss anything on your behalf."

Go on, click it. You know you want to.

Thanks KlipFolio

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:38:00 +0800

I spent almost an hour yesterday looking for an RSS reader that suits my taste, considering functionality, user-friendliness, flexibility, and of course, aesthetics.

And this is what I found: KlipFolio!

A new (for me) personal dashboard or sidebar that allows you to monitor anything from your RSS feeds to Flickr Photos, even a live cam on the Eiffel Tower! This multitasking desktop buddy even notifies you of your CPU usage, of the date and time, even everytime your Gmail gets new email.

I am still in the early stages of reviewing this free software, and I am already impressed. I’ll give you a few of my favorites, which your eager hands would immediately experience during the first 15 minutes after downloading KlipFolio.

First is the Klips, as they call it, which are little components for each data that you want monitored (examples are Klips for the pictures on your hard drive, weekly top ten movies from IMDb, most discussed videos in YouTube). These cute little things are resizable and movable, so they don’t get in your way when you have a task. The whole dashboard is also skinnable (meaning, you can change the skins), and also allows for liquid layouts, letting you easily customize the way you view your KlipFolio.

Probably the best feature of this tool is the very convenient way with which you can manage your Klips, skins, and other KlipFolio components. At the KlipFolio website download screens, one simple click on the Add Klip button beside the Klip that you want quickly updates your KlipFolio. Downloading a new skin is even easier. At the Skins page, one click on a new skin immediately downloads it and applies it to your KlipFolio. Very hassle-free.

I’m currently trying on more Klips. With 4,000 Klips to choose from, and still increasing, I can see no end yet to my experimentations.

Here is how mine looks like so far:

And I mentioned free, right?

Visit their website for more info about the product.

Tessie Aquino-Oreta's Campaign Ad

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 09:27:00 +0800

The dancing queen is now exploring the august halls of the theater arts.

A few days ago, Oreta's new campaign ad was aired on TV, and it raised a few boos and eyebrows. The dancing queen was crying on that ad, apologizing profusely for "dancing". I suggest they submit that ad to the film award-giving bodies of the country.

During the Estrada impeachment trial, Oreta sided with the ex-president. She was tagged as the dancing queen (even pokpok - a prostitute - by the more aggressive opposing groups) after the little "celebration" that she did after the move to open the second envelope that supposedly contained evidence on Estrada's plunder case was shot down by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee. Today, Oreta is saying sorry, but she claims that she didn't "dance", that it was just a trick of the camera. How would you apologize for an error that you won't even accept that you committed?

This campaign period, the senatorial candidate switched sides, and moved to the Unity ticket, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the administration's camp, which headed the Estrada trial in the first place. The 180-degree turn that she did, along with two other candidates, caused them the title ASO (Filipino word for "dog"). ASO, the acronym, stands for the initials of re-electionist Edgardo Angara, former Senator Vicente Sotto III, and Oreta, and it has been used in an opposition campaign jingle. The three claim that they only switched because "they were the ones who junked us from the ticket," and that "they did not want us to be part of the opposition slate."

With the airing of her new ad, she proved that 180 is really her thang. The dancing queen said in the ad that she is sorry for reacting that way and for hurting the sensibilities of people. What it meant to me was that she regrets being part of the Estrada group.

It is such a shame that she has to switch sides two times, just to have a chance on the senatorial elections. It makes me want to admire those who went independent just so they could preserve their principles. Dancing to different sides is what this girl, Oreta, is doing. A dancer to the very end.

Google Sitemaps for Bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (angelo.tonichi@gmail.com) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:28:00 +0800

I’m becoming a bit frustrated about how Google treats my blog site.

To increase my chances of being indexed in Google search results, a few weeks ago, I added this blog site to Google Sitemaps. I followed the correct instructions, however, I feel like the crawl is taking so long.

However, for those of you who are still interested in having your blogspot on Sitemaps, here is the easiest route. One of the great benefits of using Sitemaps is that it allows the webmaster to directly notify Google about certain changes or additions to the site.

Login to your Google Sitemaps account using your Google account (if you have Gmail, then that should do). Once logged in, at the top of the Google Webmaster Tools window, there should be an option for you to add your site. Type in your site URL, for example, mine is http://geloton.blogspot.com, then click OK.

Before Google crawls your site for indexing, it needs to verify that you are really the owner of that web site. Click the Verify your site link.

This will take you to the Verify site ownership window. Sitemaps will provide you with two options for site verification. You need to choose Add a META tag, and not the second option, Upload an HTML file, since Blogger doesn't allow that. The first options only requires you to add a piece of code to your template that Google will try to "find". Once it finds this code, your site will be verified.

Once you've selected this option, you will receive the code that you should include in your site.

Copy this code. After which, go to your Blogger account, and go to Template. Paste the code between the HEAD tags. My ideal place is immediately below the beginning HEAD tag. It looks like this on your template:

After pasting it, save your template, and go back to your Google Sitemaps account. Since you've already pasted the verification code, click the Verify button to let Google know that you own the web site.

You've already verified your site. There's some debate going on about whether you should stop at verification or proceed with uploading a sitemap to Google. To read this article, go HERE. If you wanna proceed with uploading a sitemap, then follow the next steps.

Uploading a sitemap allows you to provide Google additional information about your blog. Google will process your Sitemap and provide information on any errors and it will also download the sitemap everyday to index your blog fast.

On the Sitemaps tab, you will see a link to add a sitemap. Clicking this will take you to the Add Sitemap screen. Choose Add General Web Sitemap from the two options on the dropdown list.

You'll see that step 3 on the list allows you to input your sitemap URL. For this, just type in you blog URL, followed by atom.xml. Yes, this is the same as your ATOM feed. For example, mine is http://geloton.blogspot.com/atom.xml. If you are using the new Blogger, you must use http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full as the sitemap URL. Click the Add Web Sitemap button.

Now wait until you get the confirmation: You have added a Sitemap to http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/. Reports may take several hours to update. Thank you for your patience!

You're done! Now, all you have to do is to wait while Google does the job for you. I'm still waiting for mine though... :(