Another Chapter

It started when I woke up in the morning. 6:00 am to be exact. I hurriedly ate my breakfast because I’m to excited to experience and see Tacurong for the 1^st time. My mom and I went to the office to wait for transportation. As we started the long journey to Cotabato, I started to wonder what it feels like to be there. Especially to the people in that community. As we passed the usual place like Toril, Puan and etc., the long road trip begins. We stopped at Sta. Cruz to eat breakfast. I remembered in Cagayan where the kids asks for money. But anyway, not to mention the kids. The food there is exceptional, it’s like eating at Luz Kinilaw Place. After eating breakfast, we continued the long journey. Along the way, we met a lot of checkpoints. Mindanao is extending their security measures against armed rebels; to name a few are Abu Sayyaf, Jamaa Islamia and Al-Queda. Upon entering Makilala, North Cotabato, the scenery is great specially on the mountain sides. But the sad thing is, Muslims are owning the place for sure because it’s their territory. We passed Makilala and now entering Datu Paglas. What stumbled me in that place is child labor. As little as 2 or 3 years old, learns to carry 2 pieces of green bananas. Big ones in particular. I can’t imagine child labor is present in that place. No matter how the government fights for child labor, it’s still present in that area. Kuya Tony told me the place where the 1973-79 ambush took place. He told us too about the creaks and holes on the road. Those where purposely done to steal motorcycles. When someone stumbles on the creaks, someone will hit you in the head with a steel pipe. After that, your motorcycle is gone. Upon leaving Datu Paglas, we met some zig-zagging on the road. This is the place too where my mp3 player died because it doesn’t have any battery anymore. Anyway, zig-zag and checkpoint is present in that place. Upon reaching the borderline of Sultan Kudarat, I felt a relief because the place is safe. Actually Sultan Kudarat is composed of different tribes like Muslims, Christians, Catholics(?), Ilocanos and etc. We reached Tacurong, the destined place and went directly to Notre Dame of Tacurong. It’s my first time in the school and the school is huge. A combination of elementary, high school and college. I strolled on the school and I find the school to be fine. They have basketball, volleyball, soccer and baseball. I never knew baseball exist in Tacurong. Mom told me that Cotabato is the best when it comes to sports. I see Notre Dame the same as San Carlos. Valuing sports at the same time education or academic standing. I have a classmate from Notre Dame of Lagao, the sister school of Notre Dame of Tacurong. She actually out-passes me, a Marisian. She’s a dean’s lister while I’m not. I can’t believe it. But anyway, as I strolled, I saw some clubs that are familiar to me like JPIA, BIL and PSITS. I went directly to the basketball court and watched 3 boys playing horse. I imagined that their basketball court would be hard wood but it’s concrete, concrete that is beautifully painted. Lunch time came and I hurriedly went back to the meeting place. To my surprise, pork never existed in that place so, I was forced to eat vegetable but a relief to me is the native chicken. I like the taste so much that I asked my mom’s share and finished it. So guys, if you want to be cool and clean, live in Tacurong. No pork, no cholesterol. After eating, we went to the factory of Muscovado sugar. We went first to Madriaga’s place. We caught a glimpse on how Muscovado sugar is made. They were cooking and at the same time drying the sugar. I took pictures on the motor, the basin, the cooking place and of course the sugar when it’s wet, sticky and almost dry. I want to experience what is feels like to dry a sugar but a bumble bee came and I accidentally hit my hand on the ceiling that caused a small wound. I try to inspect the ceiling for possible nails that can cause tetanus but luckily, there were none. After visiting there, we went to Quirino for another Muscovado sugar factory. The place made candies and at the same time the sugar but to my surprise, grease leaks at the same time with the sugar juice so I was wondering if the candy has grease in it. The place too is laiden with cobwebs and dust. The VA made suggestions regarding the place and the equipment. Another one suggested to clean the place because of the cobwebs. After there, we proceed to San Pedro. In that place, we saw modernized equipment and machinery except of course to the carabao. All the things there were made of stainless steel. They talked about the plans on that place but I didn’t bother to listen. I just took pictures of the place. When it’s time to go, they gave us some Muscovado sugars as tokens. After there, we went back to Notre Dame to fetch Kuya Tony and the road trip back to Davao.

My realization? I’m lucky enough to where I’m standing now. Some people don’t have computers in there homes. Some people were brought to school by Muscovado sugar. I hope I could help them. I wish I could. It’s a good thing if the school would extend the community service or known as NSTP/CWTS to that place because there are a lot of people in need in that place. I hope too that the government would do something about it. I know they are doing what they could but would you extend it more??

I’ve been using Windows since Grade School and up to now, I still use it. You’re thinking why I’m shifting from Windows to Linux it’s because Windows is getting lame. I mean, I’m used to it. From Windows 98 to Windows XP to my encounter with Windows Vista. I don’t give a damn about what kind of Windows you have. It’s just an operating system. Without an operating system, you can’t run games, make documents (unless there still exist a word processor that runs on MS-DOS), watch movies and etc. I don’t need to buy a new operating system because it’s too costly. A regular and stable CD of Windows Vista costs I think like P20,000. That’s too damn expensive. I only update my Windows XP because updating is the key to a secure PC. I first encountered Linux when I was in high school. SMAD established an e-lib or electronic library system. That means we have the option to choose if we go manual or we go online. The operating system of our e-lib is Linux SuSe. It’s a bit different from Windows. Since that, I have no intentions on swithching since Linux is too hard to modify. The next is right now in college. The encounter with Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a free-open source project of Linux. Since SuSe uses KDE GUI, Ubuntu uses GNOME GUI. What makes Ubuntu powerful? It’s free. It’s open and it’s user friendly not mention it’s woobly effects. After that encounter, I researched about Ubuntu using the trusted search engine, Google. I found out that there are Ubuntu users here in the Philippines. I was amazed because almost all people here use Windows but since I’ve found my “comrades”, it has driven me the passion to switch Windows to Linux. I own Ubuntu and Freespire operating system. I’m downloading Kubuntu right now. Kubuntu is the same with Ubuntu but uses KDE, the GUI of SuSe. My friend Vikram from outside uses Linux for years and recommended Kubuntu for me. I’m helping him out on finding the URL of Linux MCE. Linux MCE is the same with Windows Media Center but it’s an add-on to Kubuntu. Linux MCE is not complicated compared to Windows Media Center. Linux MCE only use 2 buttons on it’s remote control but Windows Media Center uses 30 buttons.If I own a laptop right now, I’ll install Kubuntu on it or Ubuntu. I’m a member of PLUG or Philippines Linux Users’ Group, Hardware and Software on Friendster. If you are a Friendster user and you have some troubleshooting and need some advice, you can direct it to Hardware and Software group and maybe I can drop some advice on that or if not me, the tech-guys would. I’m still in college but the passion to use it is firing me up. It has given me the challenge that I wanted. The power to unleash Ubuntu or Kubuntu within my hands. Someday, I’ll unleash it. Someday. I’m too excited to wait.I would like to extend my thanks to Vikram for giving me the support on my decision to use Linux than Windows. Thanks man and by the way I have the URL of the Linux MCE. Thanks again.

I usually get a lot of emails in my inbox. One of the culprit in filling my inbox everyday is Multiply. I’ve recently moved to Multiply because of Flickr’s “recent 200 images” if you’re over 200 photos in your photostream. I’m not mad or anything but all I want is to post all my images.

We are a bit off the topic but anyway, I don’t read my email that often. This mail caught my attention. It’s from SitePro News. Usually, I don’t read that kind of mail. When I see an article, I just archive it and move to another mail. But this really caught my attention [reiteration -T1].

Advanced Link Building - Avoid These 7 Mistakes by Don Lawson (c) 2008

Recently SEOMoz did a survey among the top SEO experts. The results were surprising to say the least. None of the SEO experts could come to a 100 percent agreement on any one subject! So, if they can’t come to an agreement on SEO and link building, how is the rest of the world supposed to?

Rand surveyed the Top 37 SEO experts in the world. Basically the survey is a series of questions asked of each expert. This group of experts could not come up with an agreement rating more that 1 on many of the questions!

So now that we know the experts can’t agree, I might as well tell you the mistakes I’ve made plus the ones I see done by many webmasters when link building.

1. Failing to Procure Reciprocal Links - I’ve seen so called SEO Guru’s say that reciprocal linking is dead and they will hurt your site. This just isn’t so. The important thing to remember is to make sure the links you trade are from quality sites. It doesn’t matter if they’re PR0 just make sure they’re not from a spam/adult/pharmacy/hate type site. Reciprocal links can be on a resource page if you run a website or a Blogroll for you bloggers. Just remember to trade!
2. Failing to Acquire Low PR Links - For some reason, many webmasters do not want PR0 sites linking on them. This is link building suicide! One day, those PR0 sites could be the next PR5 or better. Frankly, I don’t care who links to my sites. I can’t control it and if they’re passing any amount of authority, and even PR0 sites pass some, I’ll take it. It also looks natural when you have many more low authority sites pointing to your site that all high PR sites.
3. Failing to Link Out - Once again, we’re talking about making your site look natural to the Search Engines, especially Google. Authority sites link out to another authority sites. Google expects to see this. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a site stuck in the SERPS only to get a liitle boost when I linked to a higher authority site. So link out to authority sites!
4. Failure to Check Your Reciprocal Link Partners’ Websites - Once you exchange links with someone, you need to follow up on a routine basis and make sure the link back to your site is still there. Some sites go down, accounts are closed, domains expire and are purchased by someone else, webmasters change website topics and some webmasters simply take your link down after you exchange links. I’ve seen people put the “nofollow” attribute on the links after they’ve made a trade. I’ve seen it all happen, that’s why I monitor my link partners and you should also.
5. Failing to Use Anchor Text in Your Link - If someone gives you the opportunity to use Anchor text in the link back to your site, use it! In my opinion, anchor text in a backlink is the second biggest off page ranking factor for SEO. Only the relevancy and authority of the page where the backlink originates is more important in my experience.
6. Failing to Cover Up Your Paid Link Footprints - Look, from here to the end of time, people will sell links. And from here to the end of time, Google will be trying to find paid links. And from here to the end of time, you’ll see blogs, websites and blog networks (think Backlink Solutions) get de-indexed for selling links. If you’re going to buy or sell links as part of you link building plan, you’d better be hiding your footprint or Big Daddy G is going to find you one dark, cold and stormy night. There are several ways of hiding you footprint, I covered one way in my link laundering article a few weeks ago.
7. Failing to Build Links - I see people on the forums all the time asking how they should go about link building or how to get started link building. Many say they don’t know how and so they don’t even try. People! I hate link building as much as the next person, but it’s not Rocket Science. You may be able to rank high in a low competitive keyword niche with on-page SEO, but for a competitive niche where’s there’s money to be made, you’re going to need some relevant backlinks!

Tip: One of the most effective link building strategies you can perform is to find out who’s linking to your competition and get links from them. You simply go to Google and type in link:yourcompetitorssite.com. You’ll get a list of sites that are linking to your competitor’s site. Browse that site to see if there is a place to put a link to your site at. If not, simply contact the person running the site and ask kindly for a link. Many times they will not respond, but some will. Now, out of those sites, do the same thing. See who’s linking to them and get links from those sites!

This is probably the easiest way to get relevant backlinks but it’s a technique very few bloggers and webmasters use! Sure it’s tedious and time consuming, but in the long run, those top rankings will be worth all the time you practiced link building.

I’ve watched Meet The Spartans. It’s a parody movie of 300 but to me, Scary Movie was better. It didn’t tickle me. Though some of it but Scary Movie was better. The joke was kind of on and off one way or another but I still vote for Scary Movie for the best parody films there is. I hoping that this would present me with good humor and laughter but it failed me. I was too excited to see this in the movie house but due to time constraints, I didn’t have the chance to see it.

According to Wikipedia,

Meet The Spartans is a 2008 parody film directed by Jason Friedberg and Arron Seltzer. Similar to past movies, such as Scary Movie, Epic Movie and Date Movie, it pokes fun at various movies. Although it references many movies, TV shows, people and pop cultural events, it focuses mainly on the 2007 historical war film 300. The film is rated PG-13 in the US and 12 in the UK for crude and sexual humor throughout, language, and some comic violence.

Some goofs from IMDb.com

1. Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During the scene of the Spartans moving out, they sing “I Will Survive”. Sonio is clearly seen singing alone, it isn’t audible, but you can see his lips singing the song before the music or anyone else is singing.
2. Continuity: In the scene where Leonidas asks Queen Margo to marry him by writing “Marry Me” on her chest with a sharpie pen, the camera changes positions a couple times during the scene and you can see the words magically disappear each time the camera switched to the wider shot.
3. Continuity: When Xerxes threatens to write Sparta out of the history books, Leonidas replies: “Well that’s fine by me, Xerxes, because I can’t read.” Previously, he had read the name tattoos on Queen Margo’s back, some of them out loud.

I really missed programming. I’ve flunked my Programming subject last 2 years ago because I really can’t understand what my professor is blabbering in front of us. Though some of us do understand or shall we say they do some “magic” up in there sleeves on how they passed the subject. I did have a lot of chances to pass that freaking subject. I could have taken it on Summer classes last year or when I came back 1st semester last year. A lot and I mean, a lot. I’m wondering why am I so stupid not to retake the subject. I would have sworn to retake (bangs on the keyboard), retake, retake, retake. And I just can’t do it. Why??? (Grabs hair until it’s gonna rip off). Why is this happening to me??

Anyway, enough of the drama. I did really regret not to retake the subject. It took me 2 years just to realize how important programming is. Ranging from websites to simple checks, programming takes it all. Now, I’ve just realized that whatver we do in life, we should take it seriously. I was thinking that I could be retained in the program but I didn’t. I have my own regrets. I’m quite lazy in another way. If I only could turn back time, I would have done it. Damn.

So, I’m back with programming. I’m gonna study C and I hope I could learn in anytime soon.